We go through life in a daily monotonous way. We play the roles of what we are ‘destined’ to be. A daughter. A mother. A daughter in law. A sister. A neighbour. A citizen. A human being. We wake up with a mental to-do list. Or in a diary (like me) or with a fancy GTD app. The lists are very different. Yet, they are very similar. They are things that define what we do, thereby, define us too. And we do them automatically. Diligently. 

Please note that this is not a feminist rant but the narrative of the fact that we totally underestimate ourselves. It’s a wonder that we do. And what we do is a wonder as well. 

• Our ability to fall in love once again, after a heartbreak. 
• Our ability to convince ourselves that we can do something that we have feared once we set our minds to it
• Our ability to accept reality by building a little bubble world for ourselves 
• Our ability to love beyond what we think possible
• Our ability to pick what we learn from our experiences 

Our ability to wonder is the biggest wonder of them all. This emotion is probably one of the biggest reasons for our achievement in life – as an individual and as a human race. Growing up, we were probably told not to ask too many questions. As children, we probably took offence to it. But then as parents, we tend to get a tad irked at the number of questions thrown at us without a pause. Thank God For Google is all I can say now. 

But the point is, wonder is often branded a childish emotion. We are more often than not asked to grow out of it. But when we don’t, it becomes the reason for a lot of wonderful experiences in our lives. And there is nothing too little or too nothing to feel wonder about. That’s the beauty of wonder. It is a very personal thing. Very subjective. 

To quote the definition 

Noun: a feeling of amazement and admiration, caused by something beautiful, remarkable, or unfamiliar.

Verb: desire to know something; feel curious.

Bring the two together, and we can create something really wonderful indeed. It is this wonder that brings us to understand ourselves. The world around us and our place in it. It could be curiosity in another human being that leads to a relationship or a scientific inquiry that could lead to an amazing innovation or discovery. 

We are possibly not likely to grow without wonder. We would be satisfied and satiated, thereby leading a stagnated life. We should therefore not only preserve this capacity, but learn to nourish it in a positive way. 

We cannot appreciate the wonder in life if we lose the ability to wonder.