Through the eyes of a child

Hello All,

Do you wonder sometimes when we lost our wonder? In other words, when did our desire to be curious or to know something disappear or get minimized, and in turn, limited our ability to be surprised, awed, astonished. When did our imagination take flight? Do you think it is age? Do you think we just forget to laugh daily, even though laughter has remarkable restorative factors? Do you think we have become so serious that the silly can’t survive? I don’t know the answer, but I do know when I get my wonder back – when I spend my time with our great-nieces! G. K. Chesterton, English writer and philosopher said “What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was full of wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.”

A couple of months ago it was at our house when our great-nieces on my side of the family came to visit. We found secret rooms on the second floor (looked suspiciously like closets to me) that held “hidden treasures”. The treasures had to be collected to give to the creature (maybe a troll?) who we had to pass to get back to the first floor. We threw “bombs” (the cats gave up their toys for a while….as they were in hiding) over the rails onto the first floor (narrowly missing poor Bob!). We hunted wolves in the backyard (I had no idea we even had wolves in the backyard) with sticks. And if we got too close to the wolves – if one wondered enough, one could hear them rustling in the bushes – then we ran screaming around the corner of the house! Only to go back to hunt them again. (We may have permanently scarred the rabbit family that does live in the backyard.) When we were flying high on the swings, we were on our way to foreign lands and we wondered what the people would be like.

This past weekend it was with our great-nieces on Bob’s side of the family. Many of you know that I love Oreos (almost as much as I love marshmallows) – and I really love the special limited edition versions. To celebrate being together and because it was rainy, we decided to indulge in S’mores Oreos! We were coloring at the time (their peacocks were significantly better than mine), so that led us to quite a conversation about what limited edition versions of Oreos we would like Nabisco to make, wondering how these new combinations would taste.  You will be happy to know that we quickly abandoned the idea of sausage Oreos. First, we couldn’t figure out which cookie it would go best on – the chocolate one? The golden one? The gingerbread one? And finally Miss H looked at me and summed it up quite well by saying “YUCK”! However we went on to to narrow down our top five ideas – Cotton Candy Oreos (we all three have a sweet tooth) – Coffee Oreos (for their dad and Uncle Bob) – Tootie Fruitie Oreos (a mixed berry blend) – “Cheery” Oreos  (read that as Cherry Oreos – think we were working on a chocolate-covered cherry delight) – and Banana Pudding Oreos (which would be great on the golden cookie). And to make this even better, a picture was drawn of each of these new cookies! There was much laughter and joy, and enough cookies consumed that we may have been on sugar highs. And yes – on behalf of the three of us, I will be sending a letter to Nabisco, complete with the  impressive works of art, to formally request these be considered as the next limited edition Oreos! The pictures were accompanied by a PS that reads “Please let us taest the Oreos when finishd.” (Typed just as spelled!) I will keep you posted if we hear from the folks at Nabisco! And I really hope we do! If you are going to wonder, wonder big!

Abhijit Naskar, one of the world’s most celebrated neuroscientists, said – “To wonder is to learn – to wonder is to grow – to wonder is to live. Live with wonder – because in the simplicity of wonder lie the answers.”  

Learn. Grow. Live. Laugh. WONDER!

Phyl