Opened by Wonder
My niece sent me a postcard with these words on the front: “I’d rather have a mind opened by WONDER, than one closed by belief.”
Karen lives in Denver, CO, a good place for wondering. I’m going to focus on the first half of this quote. (If I go into “one closed by belief,” I know there’d be trouble.)
January, named for the good old god of two faces, Janus, one looking behind, one looking ahead, is a good month to ponder and wonder. Listen to the way writer, Jane Hirshfield uses the word, ponder.
“The experience of concentration may come as the harvest of long-looking. The self’s deepest ponderings must often be taken by ambush.”
I am ambushed by the art world, the natural world, music, children, and love. An ambush can grab me around the neck like a four-year old, cause me to feel faint and fan myself when approaching Picasso’s Blue Guitar in the Chicago Art Institute, can close my eyes and make me disappear when listening to Brahms, and weep when a red dragonfly settles on my pen at the lake.
Wonder is a verb, adjective, and noun. One of my favorite resources is my good thick Thesaurus by Roget. (It is a wonder!) Wonder has 22 entries. Here are a few: marvel, awe, stupefaction, beguilement, miracle, stupendous, astonish, startle, paralyze, baffle, and indescribable.
These words describe my feelings when a jazz ensemble heats up and cooks! These words work for the quiet ecstasy of hearing a fish jump and a loon cry on a Minnesota moon-filled lake. There is no other word than “wonder” when a four-year old says, “What a wonderful flower!”
Wonder is alive and well in poet’s words. Read this short poem by Galway Kinnel.
Hide-and-Seek 1933
Once when we were playing
hide-and-seek and it was time
to go home the rest gave up
on the game before it was done
and forgot I was still hiding.
I remained hidden as a matter
of honor until the moon rose.
Here, Wonder is “understood.” Mr. Kinnell doesn’t have to wallow in it for the reader to know his connection to awe.
Ted Kooser, in his book, Delights and Shadows, (both wonder-filled words) includes this short poem.
A Glimpse of the Eternal
Just now,
a sparrow lighted
on a pine bough
right outside
my bedroom window
and a puff
of yellow pollen
flew away.
I return to two-faced Janus on the cusp of newness. The path ahead is light-filled. Mystery and Non-knowing follow. I will discover the path, and begin.
How does a writer keep on going? How do I know my notebook will fill this year? When I look back, I am not disappointed. My notebooks have filled every year since 1961. I look backwards. The words are there, proof of my existence. I have written my way into the world, as I will in 2014, and as you will, in 2014.
We can count on one thing: Wonder is alive and well. Stop. Look. Listen. You can’t miss it.
Resources
Roget’s International Thesaurus, fourth edition, 1977
Delights and Shadows, Ted Kooser, Copper Canyon Press, 2004
Strong is Your Hand, Galway Kinnell, Houghton Mifflin Co. 2006