{pawprints}: a sense of wonder

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Multi-media collage by artist Christine Mason Miller

I'm participating in Reverb10 this December. Won't you join me?

December 4th | Wonder

Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeff Davis)

2010 has been a year largely marked by deep self-reflection and questioning. Not the kind of self-reflection that's gentle and loving. Oh no, no, no. No, this was more like the demolition derby of self-reflection. The kind where you literally want to tear all the walls of yourself down and start over again.

The kind that requires a dumpster, not a wastebasket.

Much of the year felt heavy; pulled down by the weight of discoveries and realizations that were not always pleasant, and mired in the "yuck of stuck" as I have come to refer to it.

I do want to make it clear, though, that 2010 wasn't about wallowing so much as it was about finding a way through. It was that determination for a fresh start; for that freedom - that actually helped me to rediscover and yes, cultivate, a sense of wonder.

For me, cultivating a sense of wonder has meant looking, seeing, and questioning without judgement.

Being playful.

Curious.

Open.

I turned often to my camera to help me. Where would I choose to put my focus? And how did the picture change based on that choice? (Deep, I know.)

How different did things look when I focused on what was close vs. what was far away? How many times, when I was really, really close to something, did it not even resemble the thing it was? (The perfection of the metaphor here was almost more than I could stand.)