Last week with a group of Vistage CEOs and 100,000+ other folks, I watched over 600 hot air balloons rise with the sun over a park outside Albuquerque. Excited voices, fingers and cameras pointed, selfies, group shots, everyone turning and turning to look at balloons going up in all directions. We were moving around and through the flow of people to get a better view of a particular balloon going up, or out of the way of another one being laid out on the ground to fill. It was very surprising, beautiful, and amazing.
We came back tired and elated – filled with wonder. We felt good. Why does experiencing wonder make us feel so good? How do we get more of that?
I decided to explore my own relationship with wonder. I thought about seeing Yosemite Valley for the first time when I was 7. The first time I had lemon sorbet in the Piazza Novana in Rome, right after visiting the Sistine Chapel. Holding my first child just after she was born. We all have experiences we remember for a lifetime.
We also have small daily feelings of wonder. If you have young children or grandchildren, they show you wonder in the simplest things. Did you ever go outside with a 2 year old and have your 15-minute walk turn into an hour? Everything is a wonder to them – the neighbor’s dog, a flower, a crack in the sidewalk.
You leave all your other thoughts and worries aside and focus on this small surprising, beautiful, amazing experience of wonder.
In the next 24 hours, grab yourself a moment of wonder. If it feels right take a picture. Send it to me with a brief description. I’ll share some next week.
And remember:
“At moments of wonder, it is easy to avoid small thinking, to entertain thoughts that span the universe, that capture both thunder and tinkle, thick and thin, the near and the far.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi
*Miriam-Webster online dictionary
Photo: Nora Paller Oct. 11, 2014