Today’s reverb#4 prompt: How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?
I wondered what happened to my waist-line. I wondered what happened to my (aging) skin. I wondered when my children would stop squabbling with each other 45 out of every 60 minutes they spend together. I wondered why so much of my brain has to be devoted to logistics (see reverb #2, on “what gets in the way of your writing?”) I wondered how I could possibly make room to work on a novel, a screenplay, an academic article. I wondered if all the fashion designers in the world got together and decided en masse to forever erase the concept of “hips” from the clothes they design. I wondered about where we’d go if Sarah Palin & Co actually won the White House in 2012. I wondered why Barack doesn’t stand up and tell the Repugs to go fuck themselves because there comes a point when trying to play nicely with playground bullies is just dumb. I wondered how I got so lucky as to find a collection of sane & creative mommies to have as friends. I wondered how much it would cost to live in a brownstone with a garden and whether it was too late to become a hedge fund manager. I wondered why sports stars and Kardashians make so much money but give so little away. I wondered if Caleb knows how much joy I derive from listening to his elaborate Lego stories, which spin on literally for hours at a time. I wondered about taking a month off to follow Michael Franti. I wondered why in the hell I live in New York and came to the disconcerting realization that I might be miserable anywhere else. I wondered if I could learn to make a perfect roast chicken and then remembered that because I live in New York I don’t have to make a perfect roast chicken: I can have one delivered to my front door.
In short, I’m not sure I cultivated much wonder this year, but wonder sure seems to have cultivated me.
Next year, I’m going to think about wonder as a noun. And cultivate it. Maybe in a little pot right here on the window sill. I wonder how you cultivate wonder? Probably with the same sorts of seeds you use to cultivate joy. Put that on the list for 2011.
So I had to google, Michael Franti to find out who he is (because I only listen to Public Radio and am a nerd), and turns out he’s lovely and plays that song from that commercial, and oh he’s so cute, so now I want to go to Albany on Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 07:00 PM to see
Michael Franti & Spearhead at Northern Lights in Clifton Park, NY.
Who’s with me!!!!
@Suzie: The other thing about Franti is that he’s not worn shoes for ten years–started as a brief three-day gesture of solidarity with children he met in the Middle East or India, I think, and he’s just continued it. He raises money and donations at his concerts; is about 6’6″ and at the concert I went to last month, for the last song, he brought all the kids in the audience on stage AND all the people who were 60 and over. And there were plenty of both…and they all just boogied around. Really fairly super fabulous. Plus those dreadlocks. Plus he does yoga. Plus his records make me want to dance around – they’re the only thing to listen to if you have to do something like, oh, clean the house. My apartment gets crappy reception, thus no NPR for me.