How To Regain Your Sense of Wonder

I remember watching documentaries as a child about mountain climbers and adventurers. Every scene made me want to strap on a backpack and go explore some unknown part of the earth. As adults, I feel we've lost that ability to look at the world through fresh eyes. Blame it on technology, Google Earth or simply access to travel. Whatever it is, wonder seems to have escaped us. That's why most people are envious of long-term travelers or people who live outside the normal parameters of what we consider life. But isn't that exactly what those mountain climbers in the documentaries did? The stars laid out before me one night as I sprawled out on a dock on the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. I was sitting next to my friend Josh and my cousin Julie and never before had I seen so many celestial beings in nature. We were far from major towns so light pollution was low and the stars seemed to dance off one another. In my gut I could feel the pull of the heavens, yearning to reach out and swipe my hand through the cosmic dust. It was a once in a lifetime view, uninterrupted by storms or clouds.

The Wonder Next Door

Nowadays, that sense of wonder is getting harder and harder to come by. If you're like me, travel seems hard on a normal 9-5 work schedule. But the truth is, you don't need to travel far to experience wonder. Any place can be filled with wonder if you only learn to see it with new eyes. My wife and I are consciously working towards finding the wonder in the city we've lived in for years. It's easy to take for granted the things we see on a day-to-day basis. I find that bringing my camera along to take pictures helps me focus on what is beautiful and awe-inspiring in the day-to-day.

So as you go about your life, find wonder in everything. Train your eyes to look for the beautiful, the broken, the weird. You'll find that there's more of it around you than you think.

Film by Mathieu Le Lay.