Happy Fourth of July! A big day in the big old USA and it has me wondering about fireworks.
I have loved them: the boom, the ooh, and then the fireworks crackle into a new form, dripping down towards earth in the shapes of flowers. Sometimes the flowers have smaller fireworks that spin like drunken bees and our small-town crowd would then collectively release an exaggerated “ahhhhhh”. In my New Jersey youth, we’d be on an old sleeping bag on a field littered with fireflies blasting their July mating calls and the whole thing was downright magical. Spectacular.
Nowadays, I’m older. The events are crowded. There’s no parking or there’s traffic or both. I have imagery overload and have seen so many fireworks that it takes more to wow me (bitter? jaded?). Add to that all the fire risks, environmental impacts (particulate pollutants anyone?) and PTSD worries for vets, pets and entire communities impacted by senseless gun violence, and I wonder, are fireworks becoming a nostalgic relic of days gone by?
But this isn’t about fireworks. This is about wonder, and I want more of it. My imagination is weak from years of focusing too much on work and not enough on creating and daydreaming. I do think our collective imagination has suffered from excessive screens that force-feed us information that isn’t even true, or mildly helpful. Distractions are keeping us from realizing our full potential as humans. How can we work together to imagine more, tune into our other senses and indeed embody wonder. Imagine!
I’ve had lots of changes recently – kids becoming adults, parents becoming less independent, my husband and I trading bread-winning roles, climate changing into an angry earth, the list goes on and on. I’m focused on staying curious, staying present for experiences as I go, and grounding myself in an intentional, creative life.
With that, I’m creating these wondering posts to work through my own changes, and if you’re interested, to bring you along with me. We can all use some wonder – let’s get to work imagining better for us all!
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2 thoughts on “Wonderings”
Reading the two posts published at the same time was interesting. About the loss of dream Plan A – what we never know in the moment (or sometimes for years) is that the No is a Great Yes. I’ll offer evidence in my blog Giving Thanksgiving for the Noes in Our Lives. It was a Thanksgiving blog because of my gratitude for the Noes I’ve received. I received a lot of confirming emails that other people experience the same thing. You already know Something Better is coming to you, the discovery perhaps of you were really designed to become. And all your experience will be marrowbone.
https://lolawilcox.com/giving-thanksgiving-for-the-noes-in-our-lives/
Thank you Lola! And for sure, it’s hard to tell when a no will end up being a great yes! I remain optimistic, and indeed, feel that I’m becoming something (what exactly, is yet to be determined!). I appreciate you sharing – the examples are great.