With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
Where do you touch wonder right here, right now?
2 thoughts on “Present Wonder”
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I suppose my computer and the Internet are wonders.
Consciousness is a wonder. Life beginning at all is a wonder, and then how something similar to a bacteria eventually evolved into something that can be consciously aware of its existence is a wonder. I don’t know when this happened; humans are very clearly not the only ones with this ability, but I don’t know if amoebas have it as well. Maybe they do, yet they are so radically different from humans that whatever consciousness they do have is probably also quite dissimilar.
It’s a wonder how well my dog and I understand each other. I’m far from an expert on canine, and have the wrong body to speak or understand it fluently. She will likewise never master US English nor German nor even the body language that comes with these cultures. That said, there’s quite a bit of overlap on the body language, and both of us work actively to better understand and be understood by the other. From what I can tell, she usually knows approximately what I feel, what I’m trying to tell her, and what my basic expectations of her are, and the same holds true in the reverse.
A response to Martin’s comments regarding comprehension between himself and his dog are quite interesting and I agree that within the web of all life there must be much more communication than we realize. For me, participation in a Tai Chi class in which we are encouraged to “leave our problems at the door”, to be in the present moment, to consider the relationship of our own bodies and minds working together… all is allowing me to understand myself more.