“All my life I’ve been drenched in this sense of wonder and gratitude. And yet I can also feel broad stripes of sadness, the full tarot deck of anticipated loss and, these days, a real peristalsis of worry. As we age, we face the reality of many new and impending losses. We succumb easily to our fears.
But wonder is a bulky emotion. When it fills the heart and mind, there simply isn’t room for anything else. The sun rises, nature reblooms, birds pursue their own rich dramas, and Earth spins on, a rare garden in space. I have only to pay attention and my spirit levels.”
– Diane Ackerman
– D & T
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Thanks D&T for the reminder to live in wonder and not in worry…things have been a bit chaotic the last little bit for me, figuring out the big picture and small details, your post was just a nudge to get me back on the right track. Thank you.
~Danielle
Plato defines the beginning of philosophy as wonder: "for wonder is what the philosopher endures most; for there is no other beginning of philosophy than wonder."
And then as Hannah Arendt writes, "Thaumadzein, the wonder at that which is as it is, is according to Plato, a pathos, something which is endured, as such quite distinct from doxadzein, from forming an opinion about something. The wonder which man endures or which befalls him cannot be related in words because it is too general for words. Plato must have first encountered it in those frequently reported traumatic states in which Socrates would suddenly, as though seized by a rapture, fall into complete motionlessness, just staring without seeing or hearing anything." (The Promise of Politics, "Socrates," by Hannah Arendt).
I just love this essay by Arendt. 🙂
Oh, and the photographs are beautiful, the motion, the detail!
Wonder=fiber for the soul.
Verra nice. A great reminder as I've been cooped up…alllowing all but wonder to fill me.
: )