Wonder

Adults who see the world through the eyes of children are truly lucky.

I recently met one of these angels. He breezed in through the door like most children of his age are wont to do, and it wasn't long before his natural curiosity and sense of wonder captivated everyone else.

In the midst of the adult conversation which was flying around the table, he appeared at one point to announce with great glee that he had discovered a penny in the folds of the couch in another room. With a wink, one of the adults pointed him toward a gumball machine hidden in the recesses of the room. Of course he wanted to know how it worked. Following instructions to the tee, he placed the penny in the slot, turned the handle (with both of his hands) and then puzzled for just a moment before figuring out how to access the gumball which had fallen into a waiting slot. Success!

From this point onward, he would disappear for varying intervals of time and reappear bearing another coin which he had discovered somewhere in the house. The ritual continued unabated, and he announced with great gusto each time, 'that's two! ... that's three! ...'. The wonder and glee on his face was absolutely priceless.

If adults could retain just a bit of this kind of child-like wonder, what a difference it might make to our world.