“Wonder”
~Emily Dickinson
I awoke this morning to the sound of soft fluttering of wings, unsure as to whether it was in the cottage or just outside my window. I wondered what it could be: a bat, a large moth, a bird? It was flying around, but I could not see it, as it was too dark yet at 5:00 a.m. After a couple of minutes, the sound stopped, but I was now fully awake and full of wonder to get back to sleep.
Living as close to the natural world as I do, with wildlife of all forms very near me and all around me, my usual state of being is one of wonder. My cottage is located down a short wildflower pathway from the back of the big house, and summer is a great time to sleep out here, and to write. At the call of the first bird, I am awakened (no need for an alarm clock here!), and the musical chorus of bird songs swells as grey skies lighten, awakening the world.
I was going to write about Reverence for this article, but a sense of wonder naturally leads to a feeling of reverence for life. From the time we are born, we begin to wonder at the world, watching and soaking up everything as little babies, truly like a sponge. Not only do we grow healthy because of the goodness of our mother’s nurture, but our spirits are fed as well by our sense of wonder, of curiosity. I wish all children had the loving care I experienced, the opportunity to expand their spirits with a sense of wonder, but sadly this is not always the case. Too many children in the world are traumatized from a very early age by war, cruelty, negligence, and/or loss of a parent to begin that essential nurturing of their souls through wonderment. However, the spirit is unceasingly at work to heal all wounds, so there is always hope. I also know that Nature can be a healer.
I was fortunate to have a blessed childhood and grew up with adults around me who were sensitive to the beauty of nature. One of my first memories as a child of two or three years of age is standing at the base of my grandfather’s butterfly bush, which was flush with purple flowers and loaded with tiny butterflies of all varieties. I know I watched this phenomenon for long periods of time and was in a state of awe and wonder, which never left me.
Yesterday, I discovered a tiny insect on my wild spinach, otherwise known as lambs quarters, which is one of the best wild edibles (I eat steamed with other garden greens like kale and collards). This exotic-looking insect barely moved on its leaf, and looked like something straight out of the rainforest. Putting it on a fresh leaf last night and giving it a drop of water, I saw that it had moved about half an inch over night. I wonder if perhaps I have found a new, yet undiscovered insect. Here on my 11+ acres, I have an amazing variety of wild native plants, each one in service of specific insects. Such diversity is imperative to the web of life as we know it, and so much of that web is still not understood—or appreciated— by humans so busy with human things. I guess that is the awesome wonder of it all: There is always something amazing to discover. Everyone experiences that, even if it is just the wonder of another caring human being or a pet in your life. There are infinite, unending wonders here, where we dwell in the midst of this mystery called Life.
I don’t know what the fluttering was, and still is, that woke me up this morning. I am beginning to believe that it is a poor bird trapped between the inner and outer walls. Somehow, I will try to rescue it. I also do not know what that strange insect on my wild spinach is, though I intend to find out. Perhaps, I will have made a discovery worth writing about in a nature magazine!
Soon, I will be off on a vacation to see the awesome ocean. As much as I love the ocean, I also worry about the terrible assault upon it by the industrial world. I do wonder, or question, how and if we can deal with all the challenges we have ahead of us to clean up our materialistic messes of plastic pollution and on-going spills of toxic chemicals, etc. People dedicated to such cleanups have a strong sense of what is important. They, no doubt, understand the importance of wonder in our lives and are working to preserve that for our children and our children’s children. These warriors for the earth are my heroes.
I pray you and your loved ones and friends are having some awesome moments this beautiful summer, filled with wonder.
As for me, every day I walk out my door and smell the sweet perfume of mimosa and milkweed flowers, I hear bird songs, I see the bees and butterflies feeding voraciously on my Bergamot and Monarda flowers, my mood shifts from ponderous to wondrous. I guess you might say my sense of wonder since childhood remains intact, and for that I am grateful. May you never loose yours. God bless.
