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| Turning Over a New Leaf
A Publication of New Leaf Adventure Coaching and Consulting |
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| Issue #3: Wonder-full Life |
December 2008 |
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Greetings!
In this issue, I write about the concept of wonder and the teacher who has come into my life. She is helping me regain my ability to be present to the delights that are before us each day in this wonder-full world.
If you are looking for an opportunity to step into the wonder of the winter landscape, check out January's "A Day Away" retreat, Stepping Into the New Year: What Tracks Will You Make in 2009?
Blessings of the season,
Jennifer
 Jennifer Wilson, MA
Life Coach and Adventurer
New Leaf Coaching and Consulting
414-510-8153
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 It's a Wonder-full Life!
I am an apprentice to this young teacher: a sixteen-month-old child named Mae. We sit at the window and I watch her excitement as a German Shepherd lopes by, owner in tow. When an airplane soars above, we listen together, our full attention absorbed in the sight. When my cat, Allie, strolls into the room, we laugh with delight.
A relatively new person in this world regularly encounters exciting and amazing experiences to wonder over, yet adults often lose this vision. Many of us become immune to the simple yet profound pleasures of our world, and we allow "wonder" to become a verb we invoke when we worry instead of a noun that reminds us of being present in the moment.
We wonder what lies ahead in the New Year, or we wonder if we'll keep our jobs or health, or we wonder how we'll get through the stress of the holiday season. We wonder how we'll get everything done each day. We are often unable to be swept away by astonishment, awe, and mystery, the very qualities that Mae embodies. Instead, we frequently embody an illusion of "Must" and "Should" and "Have to," "Need to," "Don't have time to."
But what if I "must" touch things more and really notice how they feel? What if I "have to" spin in circles until I can't walk straight because it's fun? And most importantly: What if I don't have time to experience what a child can teach me about life? Then, I don't have time for life.
Each year the earth seems to take its trip around the sun with increasing speed, blurring our senses lost in busyness. Yet to apprentice ourselves to wonder, to the child still alive in us all, sharpens our senses to the glory of the world that is our inheritance. Thank goodness for this child of wonder, teaching me how to keep my senses alive moment to moment.
Coaching question: This poem by Mary Oliver captures the essence of wonder and demands that we consider its place in our lives. How would you answer the poem's final question?
The Summer Day
by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?Copyright December, 2008: Jennifer Wilson, New Leaf Coaching and Consulting Edited by Shaun Perkins www.journeyinwords.com |
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| Save 10% |
As part of your life coaching package, all current clients receive 10% off of the regular price for any A Day Away retreat. (Must register by the regular registration deadline.)
Curious about life coaching? Call for your free half-hour consultation to see how life coaching can help you turn over a new leaf! 414-510-8153 |
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