Wonder is the State of a Mature Human

Imagine if we taught our children to keep their sense of wonder; if we taught them that wonder is the natural state of a mature human.

Imagine life if we focused our mind on the wonder of all that has been, is, and could be created. What sense of wonder was in the eyes that observed the earth and imagined it was either flat or round? What curiosity is in the mind that ponders if deep space particles are part of us and seeks to prove it? When we look at the trees in our yard, can we be still for a moment to marvel at the process of cell replication that causes it to produce more and more branches and then, at some point, reverse the process to decay?

What is this sense of wonder? It is not the flighty, naïve deer-in-the-headlights perception of everything around us. Instead, wonder is a higher frequency answer to the question “why.” “Why” is an intellectual inquiry that keeps us in our minds. Wonder not only allows us to inquire intellectually but also to dream of the possibilities beyond philosophical investigations. Wonder opens us to infinite possibilities.

Wonder simultaneously opens the mind, the heart, and the solar plexus, the seat of our will. Wonder allows our mind to relax its functions of logic, reason, and process to float instead in the illuminating infinity of our hearts. It will enable our hearts to relax, fully expand, and transcend the preconceived or predetermined. It grounds us.

In a state of wonder, our physical bodies change. We reflexively breathe in life-giving energy and are transported to an altered state, where we access the full power of our imagination. This frequency opens golden tunnels to other dimensions where we can absorb the unknown of never-before-imagined understandings and knowledge and allow the sharing of information back and forth.

Wonder allows us to expand our consciousness. Think of a balloon filled with air going from a narrow to an ample space. In this larger space, we fly free of restrictions to the joy of discovery. It allows us to exercise our courage to take risks in our thoughts. As we allow our minds to float unfettered, we are freed of mental gyrations like rules and boundaries. We discover something new – possibly only new to us – but unique. Along the way, our confidence grows as we unconsciously expand our belief in our strength. With this expansion comes a sense of peace that we allowed ourselves to travel that path.

It sounds strange but ponder a bit. How often do we step outside what we know to be “true” and look back at it? Do we tend to loop around in a restrictive circular fashion within our logical, rational mind, unable to see past it? Perhaps we are compromising our ability to make correct decisions if we step away from a long-held belief. If so, have we lost the wonder of experiencing, imagining, and creating? Perhaps what we want is freedom from the known.

Are we becoming so jaded that we believe we know everything there is to know, that there is nothing left to wonder? Have we decided that our collective memory, our filing cabinet of a brain holding thousands of years of experiences, is all there is? When we witness a tree bowing in the wind or the wiggling of a newborn baby, do we settle into a sense of awe and wonder? Do we allow our imaginations free to rein to ponder how is this possible, what element exists outside of us that could create this, how was this made, what can do this, could we be as creative, what do we not know about our human selves and our birthrights?

Have we become so tired that fantastical imagining is the purview of only a few so-called gifted humans? An exhausted mind is a dead mind; dwelling in barriers and boxes is a regressive mind, a devolution of Self. We do not have to believe everything we imagine or make it a solid structure or set of rules. It is fine to allow our imagined concepts to stand on their own, percolate and shimmer within us, reviewed or discarded, or pieced together over time into something to which we alone relate. The following steps in the evolution of human consciousness will not come forth by creating more concrete belief systems.

I often wonder if much of what is currently happening in our world is due to a deeply buried sense of resentment. At the individual level, it pours out as judgmental criticism of that which does not conform to a human-made set of averages and norms. I might suggest that it has seeped from the individual into the entire collection over the past thousands of years of restrictive thought and systemic controls on the essential elements of human nature. Could the cause of this be centuries of damming the flow of mental expansion through the imposition of boxed-in societal structures of conformity?

Above and beyond resentment of what is happening to us as a collective, could there also be a voice inside us that speaks of resentment of our very own self? A voice that says there was a time we could have, should have, would have? Over millennia the fear of reprisal, punishment, and banishment attached to our most vital belief systems has overshadowed the courageous heart of the individual. Is this small voice within that whispers of our resentment desperately trying to reach the forefront of our consciousness? To remind us, we can create a society, government, and systems that allow for the equal exercising of the rights of both the individual and the collective courage, integrity, and kindness.

Wonder is one part of what is required to leap us out of this entangled matrix of the current collective. Wonder is a technology of the psyche. Like technology, it requires us to activate the correct set of codes within our being. Where it was once effortless as children, our world and its social conventions have systematically buried the codes. Our inner essence informs the motivation, which then makes a choice and decides the action.

A wonder-infused essence will create altered thought patterns, behaviors, and actions. These will automatically influence how we develop our social systems and structures. Can we imagine we might make a better world if we looked through eyes filled with wonder?

Picture yourself hovering on the outside of an ancient circle of standing stones. Tall, majestic, solid. Inside this circle is another space in time, another way of being, thinking, and feeling. It seems foreign to you – yet achingly familiar. To step into it is an act of power. You hesitate…you wonder… what is this power? The ability to feel the miraculous complexity of patterns and connections in what has already been imagined and brought into form. The power of silent awe. The power of amazement. The power to lift above the negative. The capacity to discover what truly lies within our hearts, to find out what depth of strength we hold within our will, and the power to explore the creations that lie waiting within our imaginations. Even during deep pain, we can acknowledge the wonder of the transitions and cycles that make up our journey.

As we tune to wonder, we become so fundamentally altered by its frequency that all that is created to pull apart our world will necessarily cease. It will collapse under its lack of reason for existence. Let’s be curious, open our minds, and discover our personal unknown. Let’s peacefully explore the depths of ourselves and swim back up to the surface of our lives with a pearl of wonder-filled wisdom. Take the step. Bathe your heart in creation’s pulse and joyfully revel in the wonder of it all. Wonder is the natural state of a mature human.