Wonder is the beginning of wisdom

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom" said Socrates, which made me curious as to what "wonder" actually means.

Some definitions to start with for the word "wonderment":  1. Astonishment, awe, or surprise. 2. Something that produces wonder; a marvel. 3. Puzzlement or curiosity.

“When you don't cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought.”  wrote Eckhart Tolle, nonetheless, do we still have the ability to experience wonderment or is what Eckhart Tolle suggests true for most of us?

Has the word "awesome" replaced wonderment in some instances? Pondering wonderment, it occurred to me that there is a sense of openness to possibilities in the feeling of wonderment. "I don't know how or why, but I just love the way an albatross surfs the winds." Beethoven was deaf when he wrote many of his symphonies, I don't understand how that's possible, I just love his music." "I understand that an egg and a sperm makes a baby, but when I held my first born in my arms the first time, I was filled with wonder and amazement, knowing how at that point, meant very little."

On the other hand, for some people knowing how is directly linked with feelings of wonderment.

I was fortunate enough to spend a day with a bone fide medicine man called George when I spent some time in the US some years ago. His home modest and filled with many artifacts, at the back of the property a sweat lodge, and a small enclosure with a wolf mother and her cub. The minute George invited me in to his home I was struck with a sense of peace and wonderment. We sat down around a wooden table covered with a multicoloured cloth and I was offered some tea.

George spoke slowly and deliberately with a very soothing voice, his body language open and friendly as he asked me many questions. Somehow time seemed to stand still, I felt as if we had stepped outside of the constraints of time and space all together. My whole being was filled with wonderment and peace. This man was a full blood native American, his connections with country deep seated and his wisdom, although founded in many ways on a very different background than my own; profound. I was filled with a sense of wonderment from the moment I met George and even today when I think of the time I spent with him, I can immediately "time travel" and connect with those feelings of wonderment.

Every day wondrous moments present themselves to us, I just wonder if we are able to recognise them. Maybe we can learn from children?
  "As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself- consciously to the soughing of the trees." (Valerie Andrews)

At times maybe it can be beneficial for us "grown-ups" to allow ourselves to be amazed, to be filled with a sense of wonderment, to enjoy something just because.......

To allow ourselves to listen to music with reckless abandon, to enjoy nature as she is without wanting to harness her, to spend time getting lost in something we love doing, to gaze at the starry sky without any thoughts of how, what, when, where, to enjoy a meal with a friend with all "i-thingys" turned off,

to just sit with the possibility that it's not necessary to know everything, to do like children and just go with the flow.

"As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins." (Albert Schweitzer)

Albert Einstein suggests this: "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is a s good as dead: his eyes are closed."   

The world is full of mystery and wonder as well as familiarity and certainty. Each human carries his/her own universe within, no two the same. Not knowing, but getting to know others universes, offers the possibility of much wonderment and mystery for all with eyes open.  

It's one thing to know all the properties of a strawberry, but why not eat it and experience the taste?

It's one thing to appreciate art, why not try to make some and experience the creativity?

It's one thing to talk about love, why not open the heart and experience it?