How Kids can teach us to keep our sense of Wonder

Have you ever had a Netflix binge session? I mean, like, hours on end watching random shows until the end and being disappointed that the new season hasn't come out yet. It's the latest rage. The opportunity to have a moment where you get to relax and watch something where you are entertained, yet don't have to think much is pretty cool. I did not have one of those moments. In fact, it was the exact opposite.

Cari and I decided to watch a documentary called The Creative Brain. It's a movie based on how we get tot he creative zone and get those awe inspiring juices flowing. Really cool if you haven't seen it yet. But chill it was not. I was so enthralled with the content that I couldn't help but sit up in my couch and listen to what was going on. Cari put it back on our list so that we could watch it again with a notebook to take notes on how we could get creative ourselves.

My blood was pumping and it was the perfect way to start my Sunday. Flash forward 12 hours, I'm "Zoomin'" with my family for dinner and my brother shows up with his adorable 1 year old, Tadgh (pronounced tye- g). He's got the cool baby sign language down and teaches me a few words. The coolest part was my attempt to be creative with him in the moment. So I do the first thing everyone does when they see a cute adorable baby... I make a face.

After many failed attempts to make contact with boy, no dice. But then a magical thing happened. It caught on. He started to replicate what I was doing and before you know it, we started a never-ending game of Make a Face. The intense game of stretching one's facial muscles to make the best face and see if the other person can replicate it. It worked. Before long, it was he who was leading me in the game.

I'd leave the screen to get some food or attend to the many of Zoom things one must attend to and come back. Sure enough there's Tadgh noticing me back on screen and the game resumes. On and on this goes for the remainder of the session and I can't get enough. He now has his first ever game he gets to play with his uncle and will forever jump on Zoom and play Make a Face with whomever is on it, I'm sure.

Sometimes i wonder, why as adults we lose our sense of wonder. An hour later, I was watching TV where they asked that same question in sitcom The Great North. Losing one's wonder leads to hardening the imagination. All I think about is how hardening that muscle means it will never grow and the very thing that made us happy when we were younger could be the thing that we need most right now. Yet, it's hard and unstretchable. It's rusty and in need of repair.

The great thing is, that imagination and wonder is like the brown hills I see here in my hometown. All it needs is just the slightest rainfall and poof! It's filled with the most amazing colors of green grass, yellow and red flowers. A beautiful sight to see. So the next time you're waiting in line, get bored, stuck in traffic or find yourself dozing off, use that as an opportunity to imagine and wonder. Wonder the possibilities and imagine whatever wild thoughts come to your mind.

I would even imagine that a person in wonder and imagination land is a happier person, a more creative person, a problem solver and solution maker. An imaginative person is a wondrous person and a wondrous person, well, is just...

WONDERFUL!

Cheers,

JG