The Wonder You Think You Outgrew

Ram Dass wrote about meditation,

“Stop thinking that meditation is anything special. Stop thinking all together. Look at the world around you as if you had just arrived on Planet Earth.” Ram Dass, Journey of Awakening

That line. As if you have just arrived.

But think for a minute.

You have been here a while now.

And it shows.

This morning you walked through your house without seeing it.

You knew where the cups were. But you looked through the window and noticed only the weather.

You may even have looked across the table at someone you love and seen.

But you saw your picture of them, not their face.

Nothing is wrong with you. We all do it.

The mind names familiar things quickly so you can move through the day. It’s our default.

But sometimes the name, the thought, stands between you and the thing itself.

That is why travel wakes you.

In a strange town, you notice doors, voices, evening light. You go two thousand miles to borrow back your eyes.

Then you come home, where so much is known that the looking seems finished.

And a sadness rises: When did my own life become so hard to see?

What if wonder was something that’s gone, that I aged out of?

What if the rest of my life feels the same?

Ram Dass begins there.

The freshness has not left your life.

Something happens in the half-second between seeing a thing and naming it.

That is where your own life goes invisible.

And it is also where you begin to see it again.

Read more