Terminalcoffee discussion

I should preface his post by saying I'm not drunk, despite my best intentions. I fell asleep after the first beer and woke to weird, guilty dreams (although I've done nothing that wrong, at least tonight) a few hours later.

Anyway, I was standing in front of my kitchen cabinets today, after I got home from work, and I was struck, out of nowhere (probably related to stress and fatigue) with the thought, "When we first moved into this house, eleven plus years ago, standing in front of these kitchen cabinets and looking for something to eat gave me immense joy. It's not that I'm sad now, but I was stunned by the fact that we had moved to small town Wisconsin, and just the very act of opening a cabinet seemed amazing to me."

And no, I wasn't on drugs at the time.

But sometimes I forget, or lose track, or the wonder of our beautiful world. How do you, personally, recapture your sense of amazement of our strange and beautiful existence when, for whatever reason, you lose that perspective?

Sunset watching. I've been trying to make it a daily ritual. There's something about nature that never loses its magic.


I've been remembering Proust a lot lately. This feels like a funny coincidence.

During these times past?

Temps perdu, Sally.

Knarik, I find myself doing the same thing. I love looking at the moon especially. Logically, I know it's just a big hunk of rock in the sky reflecting the light of a hidden sun, but somewhere inside it feels like an old and wise friend who knows so much more than my small minds does.

I love sitting outside under a full moon, resting my head and letting all my thoughts go fuzzy. Sometimes it feels as if I can actually feel the natural world around me, how immense and flowing it is, how it follows this eternal pattern of a dance that we are just such a small part of. (But, we are a part of it all) What are my small problems in life compared to such a vastness of ease and joy and wonder? It helps me put things into perspective and somehow conveys hope and gratitude at the same time. When you can tap into this, it is almost impossible to allow fret and worry steal those feelings away.

I Think that Knarik and Sherrie hit the concept pretty well. You almost have to allow yourself the time to just lay back and let things come to you rather than try to seek things out. Staring at the moon, watching an insect on a plant, or even watching a spider make a web can do this for me.

taking time to smell the roses

Dusk is always my favorite time of the day. There's that magical time when the day and night are in perfect balance, so it's neither one, and it seems the world opens up to another dimension.

I also love to go outside first thing in the morning, and just have a moment's quiet. Listening to birds tweet usually gets me out of myself.

It's those moment's of getting outside ourselves I think, senses all external, that make for the times of wonder.

Sherri, you are very lucky. I love hearing that it still exists in people.

Today I got a great big taste of this, and it was exactly what I needed. We finally have a sunny weekend (and in the PNW that is so rare this time of year), and I got to read for a long time just soaking it up. Then, my 7 yr old comes running up to tell me that she built a pinecone hotel in the backyard.

She dragged me down to the back of our lot where it's all pine trees and an old swing and a little campsite, and she had taken a bunch of old boards from a busted up bench and built the cutest 'hotel' on top of a big tree stump. We spent the afternoon 'decorating' it with fallen pine branches and old things laying around, with the pine cone people swimming in a pool and walking up the ramp and even kissing on a little bench she made. Then I pushed her on the wood & rope swing for a long time, which I can't always do because of my arthritis. She just laughed & joked & made funny faces, and we tried to bump fists 'nugs' style each time she swung back to me. It was beyond great. It was wonderful.

This is exactly what brings you back to the sense of wonder in your life, by playing with your kids and seeing it all through their eyes. I just loved it. :)