~As a noun, something that causes astonishment.
~As a verb, to feel or be affected with wonder; to be struck with surprise or astonishment, to marvel.
~ As an adjective, wonderful, wondrous, marvellous.
~And as an adverb, wondrously, marvellously, surprisingly; exceedingly, very.
When I think of wonder I think of it, generally, as a verb. Two ideas come to me when I dwell on wonder.
Nature, and children.
I think that wonder can be defined by children.
When I think about wonder, I think about the awe and amazement you see in the eyes of a child that has just thrown a stone into a puddle, creating a ricochet of ripples accompanied by a thrilling splatter of water droplets.
One particularly strong image that comes to me is of a little toddler named Sienna, with huge dark eyes and an afro of curly dark hair. One day I was playing with Sienna, when she reached up toward the ceiling. I looked up to see a cluster of four wind-chimes, all with different shapes and colors, hanging from the center of a broken fan. I lifted Sienna up so she could hit them and make them chime. The look of utter wonder in this little girl’s huge eyes as the clamorous sound reverberated around the room was so intense, that it seemed be transferred over to me as I held her. Time and time again I lifted her up to set the chimes into frantic ringing, and every time she was equally thrilled. It was like her mind couldn’t quite fathom the idea that such sound could come from these metal rods. And at the same time she was in wonder at the chimes, I was in wonder of her ability to be so overcome by such a trivial thing.
I think that beautiful, peculiar sights in nature also evoke wonder (at least for me they do). Here are some pictures that evoked wonder in me. The first picture is from the peak of a California mountain, abovethe clouds. The second is of a whale feeding at the surface. The third, entertwined jellyfish.
~As a verb, to feel or be affected with wonder; to be struck with surprise or astonishment, to marvel.
~ As an adjective, wonderful, wondrous, marvellous.
~And as an adverb, wondrously, marvellously, surprisingly; exceedingly, very.
When I think of wonder I think of it, generally, as a verb. Two ideas come to me when I dwell on wonder.
Nature, and children.
I think that wonder can be defined by children.
When I think about wonder, I think about the awe and amazement you see in the eyes of a child that has just thrown a stone into a puddle, creating a ricochet of ripples accompanied by a thrilling splatter of water droplets.
One particularly strong image that comes to me is of a little toddler named Sienna, with huge dark eyes and an afro of curly dark hair. One day I was playing with Sienna, when she reached up toward the ceiling. I looked up to see a cluster of four wind-chimes, all with different shapes and colors, hanging from the center of a broken fan. I lifted Sienna up so she could hit them and make them chime. The look of utter wonder in this little girl’s huge eyes as the clamorous sound reverberated around the room was so intense, that it seemed be transferred over to me as I held her. Time and time again I lifted her up to set the chimes into frantic ringing, and every time she was equally thrilled. It was like her mind couldn’t quite fathom the idea that such sound could come from these metal rods. And at the same time she was in wonder at the chimes, I was in wonder of her ability to be so overcome by such a trivial thing.
I think that beautiful, peculiar sights in nature also evoke wonder (at least for me they do). Here are some pictures that evoked wonder in me. The first picture is from the peak of a California mountain, abovethe clouds. The second is of a whale feeding at the surface. The third, entertwined jellyfish.
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