Tell About It

“The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.” ― Abraham Joshua Heschel

Wonder might just be the most valuable—and endangered—commodity of our day.

Wonder offers itself both as a noun (awe) and a verb (to be curious). This little word holds a power to reframe our perspectives and move us to transformative action.

While I’m simply on the precipice of learning what wonder has to offer, here are a couple reasons I’m initially pulled toward it.

AWE=AN ANTIDOTE TO DISCONTENTMENT AND UNPRODUCTIVE ANGER

We live in an age of acceleration. Information, ideas, images come to us at an ever-increasing speed. There’s plenty to celebrate with our progress, but there are also insidious affects. Some of the messages that come our way are intended to make us discontent, others to provoke fear.

Daily the average person encounters 12,000 marketing messages indirectly and 500 direct advertisements. These messages are designed to challenge our contentment (buy this, go here, change that…and perhaps you’ll be as happy and good-looking as those in the ads).

With the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle, viewers have had to be kept engaged like never before, and fear is one of the most effective ways to keep people watching. And fear—if not rightly engaged—can easily turn to unproductive anger.

In the midst of the 21^st century motion and marketing, awe offers an invitation to pause, to consciously take in the world around us. It beckons us to recognize beauty and give thanks. It helps us cultivate an awareness of good—in the small and in the grand. The act of saying “thank you” can begin to counteract those thousands of marketing messages.

I believe awe has another invitation to pause. It’s an opportunity to experience helpful outrage. If you’re like me, you hear/watch/read about a lot going wrong in the world (natural disasters, terrorism, collapse of economies) and it’s easy to absorb without intentionally engaging, processing and sometimes rightly taking action.

When we pause and correctly name injustices and respond (pray, give, advocate, or act) we diffuse some of the power and we become less angry and less anxious.

Awe can do judo on ingratitude and anxiety.

Awe encourages us to be partakers in the pause. Wow. I’m thankful. Or ugh! That’s unjust…and perhaps I can do something.

CURIOSITY=AN ANTIDOTE TO DISTRACTION AND DISSATISFYING RELATIONSHIPS

I’ll confess, as access to information has gotten uber easy my curiosity has become flabby. I jump from NY Times to Global Post to Facebook…sometimes reading headlines with the illusion of understanding but rarely do I invest in getting to know something really…and that distractibility and shallow depth of knowledge can intrude upon my relationships. I can see what a friend had for breakfast on Instagram or a change in relationship status on FB and think I’m in the know.

Curiosity can do judo on boredom and loneliness.

It tethers us to understanding. It helps us to humbly take an account of what we know and what we’d like to discover.

At the core, I think curiosity can be a spiritual practice—showing us a way forward to love the world, others, ourselves, and God.

Curiosity and awe are so often seen as temperaments or soft skills but I believe they are ways of living that can be learned, life-skills that can be developed.

I long to grow in these areas, that’s why I am setting off to see who is living out these characteristics in the most effective and transformative ways.

The past few years I have interviewed some extraordinary people who have been living these out, so I plan to reflect on their stories as well as seek out other individuals around the globe.

I hope you join me on this journey. I’d love to hear how you’re experiencing wonder and any people you come across that inspire you to wonder more.

Please post your encounters with wonder here:

http://tamarapark.com/blog/
facebook.com/365DaysofWonder

Let’s see how wonder may make 2015 one of the best years yet!

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.― Abraham Joshua Heschel

As 2015 commences I awake to this reality: I’m unemployed, single and childless. The embodiment of the American dream I may not be, but I have a suspicion that I’m smack in the middle of where great stories begin.

I plan to embark on 365 Days of Wonder, and I invite you to join me.

I’ve been intrigued with wonder for a while. I love that it exists as a noun (awe) and a verb (to be curious). Beyond its fabulous dual meaning powers, I believe wonder might just be potent enough to turn my story into a zestier one, encourage yours…and make the world a better place in 2015.

Last year I set out to have a year of wonder but I’ll confess I just got too busy, too distracted, too stressed to pay attention to it. I suppose I never took the time to figure out how to go about experiencing more wonder.

Well, there’s nothing like being laid-off from a high-intensity job to make space on the calendar.

So, here are a few ways I plan to engage wonder this year and I’d be thrilled if you participated too:

1. A PRAYER FOR WONDER – I desire to approach each day with divine anticipation. I plan to begin my day with a prayer for wonder…and I expect to receive it.

Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me. ― Abraham Joshua Heschel

2. A DAILY EXAMEN OF WONDER –A 16th century Spaniard named Ignatius of Loyola developed a way of processing the day that prioritized gratitude as a foundation to the spiritual life and invited authentic conversations with God. Here’s a link to his approach: http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-prayer/the-examen/

In the spirit of Ignatius’ examen, I plan to spend a couple of minutes at the end of each day reflecting on these questions:

• How did I experience wonder today?
• Where did wonder get lost?
• How might it get reclaimed tomorrow?

3. SEE/SHARE/POST WONDER – Let’s create a community that’s on the lookout for wonder. I plan to do a daily post a picture, snatch of conversation or something else that led me to wonder. I’ll post these on my blog (http://tamarapark.com/blog/) and the FB Page 365DaysofWonder (facebook.com/365DaysofWonder). Here you too can post your discoveries, your snapshots or your questions.

Join me…and perhaps we can start a movement!

4. CREATE WONDER – Consider using one of your passions as a portal to exploring wonder (ie photography, music, writing, cooking, woodworking, etc.). See how paying attention to wonder might invigorate your creative work.

This year I plan to write articles on wonder. I’ve had the opportunity to interview a couple of hundred extraordinary people through the years and hope to explore some of their stories to see what I can learn from them about awe and curiosity. I also hope to interview others around the world that live out wonder in innovative and transformative ways. I’ll post those on my blog as well.

I’d love to hear/see/read about ways your engaging wonder too.

I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don’t be old. Don’t be stale. ― Abraham Joshua Heschel