Children and Wonder
All children are so awestruck with the world around them; it is truly an amazing thing. Have you ever seen a small child walk up to a balloon and admire their reflection in it? Upon viewing themselves in this colorful mirror, they reach out to the balloon, gleefully grasping it and bringing it closer to their amazed faces. The expression on their faces is one of such intense joy it’s amazing. If you smile at them they will, unavoidably, smile right back at you. Everybody would be helped by a little wonder and joy in their life. To wake up in the morning and take a moment to breathe in the day, to look around and thank God for all that he has blessed us with, great or small and to see the world through a child’s eyes. This wonder increases one’s range of emotions. To wonder at a balloon can add a refreshing dose of joy to a day, but to wonder at the suffering of others or the evil in people instills a crippling amount of pain. Increasing one’s range of emotions seems pointless; why increase our suffering even if we do experience joy more vividly? Concentrate on the joy. You see, we already experience enough pain; increasing our range of emotions means adding joy, adding smiles, adding glee, adding unabashed silliness to our lives. Calling for more joy and wonder in one’s life is easy to do because its always easy to point out problems but challenging to create solutions. Thus, skeptics ask; what’s one good way to work towards a more joyful life? Answer: buy a helium balloon.