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The Big Wow

Karen "Tallkat" Conley posted on 8/22/2017 10:02:00 AM
The Big Wow
It was Easter morning. I was seated at the kitchen table in my pajamas, stunned by the presence of the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my entire five years of life.

A huge Easter egg made of sparkling sugar sat on the table in front of me. Upon closer examination I saw there was a small opening, like a peep hole at one end. What, oh what could be inside? When I looked into the opening, I saw it.

A complete fairy tale scene was tucked inside the sparkling egg! A rabbit fully dressed in an Easter suit and pants with a buttoned vest and a bow tie surrounded by green grasses, trees, yellow chicks in tiny woven baskets. All INSIDE an egg made of white dazzling sugar with pink and green floral edging. How could such a thing exist?! How was it made? Where did it come from? How did the scene get in there? Magic? What could possibly be better?

I was beyond words.

This was surely an object of museum or heirloom quality and priceless in value. My pink plastic Easter basket with jelly beans, marshmallow chicks and chocolate bunnies was shoved aside. It was of no interest when compared to the rare beauty of my sparkling magical egg. An authentic work of art.

I could not imagine how this egg arrived. It wasn’t there the night before. I reasoned it was some deeply unknown highly mysterious connection to the Easter holiday and of course to The Easter Bunny himself. My mother whispered to me that she had seen his shadow in the hallway, long ears and everything before she went to bed. A factual and verified adult sighting of the one and only world renowned Easter Bunny. It was thrilling, astounding! That was all the evidence I required that a miracle had taken place. It was almost more than I could contain.

The wondrous Easter Egg was placed in a special place on my doll shelves where it stayed for a year so others could see and admire the stupendous, sensational, and incredible creation.

The sense of pure unaltered wonder we experience as children is unforgettable. When was the last time you were caught up in wonder, awe, surprise? What makes you deeply wonder? Have you had a Big Wow lately?

We can still enjoy wonder in a childlike ways as adults but we have to encourage it and allow it to happen. We might even have to look for it until we remember what it felt like and why it is so special.

Wonder is hard to describe. As adults it can be fleeting. Childhood is when this flows toward us in abundance. When we tune into the possibility of being mystified, stupefied and mesmerized by a mix of surprise mingled with admiration over something inexplicable no matter how great or how small, we add a sweet quality to life.

The world is full of mysteries, curiosities, oddities and the miraculous.

For example, did you know:

Saddam Hussein was the author of a romance novel called Zabia and The King?

Every day twenty banks are robbed.

Las Vegas casinos have no clocks.

A shrimp’s heart is in its head. (!)

In Taiwan, food is sometimes served in miniature toilet bowls.

For every one person there are 1.6 million ants. The weight of all ants combined is almost equal to the weight of all humans combined.

Halliburton tried to patent patenting.

You now have vital facts and information.

Some mysteries remain unsolved and cannot be fathomed like the universe, space, secret life of plants, the human body, and wild things. These are starting points for a deliberate experience of wonder. We can question the how and the why as a means for exploration, instead of only explanation.

Studies show us that a sense of wonder offers benefits beyond the moment or the singular experience. It encourages a sense of curiosity and collaboration with others. It promotes kindness because it gently reminds us that we are not the center of the universe.

But we do not need studies to tell us about wonder and all its benefits or the spectacular feeling it is. In a moment of wonder time seems to stop and the rest of the world falls away as the experience encodes in your neural networks.

We don’t have to be five years old to experience it. It is not necessary to be a scientist, a sociologist, or a physics professor to stumble upon it.

We just have to want to find it now and then. It will show up just like that. Magic. For real.

We can recruit a kid to talk with us about what they have found to be wondrous for a start.

It exists everywhere, hidden until we look for it. It passes through us like a dream and leaves us refreshed with a new sense of wild expansion. Its fun to share it by talking about it.

It happened to me just the other day.

My dog Grace found a fuzzy black caterpillar crawling slowly along which would someday be a butterfly. As she stood over it examining the fuzzy little being, it raised and turned its tiny head, lifting his body to meet her gaze.

For a few seconds they observed each other in amazement. Grace put her head carefully on top of the little guy, feeling his fuzziness and segmented wiggly body as the caterpillar moved closer to her, too. Just like that. All three of us in unspoken wonder. A moment frozen in time like a Walt Disney real life fairy tale on a dusty country road in New Mexico.

You might have to consult with an elementary school kid, turn to nature or to animal life for a start, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll find endless wonders all around you.

Like the mischievous loud mouth kid in my neighborhood who proclaimed with great gusto and ear shattering volume: “BIGGY WOW WOW!”

Go for it. Go after it.

The Big Wow.




Posted in: Spirituality, Inner Guidance, Intuition, Motivational, Self-Improvement, Tallkat, Love | Tags: wonder , marvel , gusto , new mexico , catapiller , magic , Las Vegas , clocks , Easter , bunny , Easter Egg , grace | Comments (0) | View Count: (4443)

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Copyright 2013 by Karen "Tallkat" Conley