She outstretched her small, mittened hand toward the sky and caught a snowflake. She held it for a moment, basking in wonder, before it melted away, forever transformed into tiny droplets of water.
One-night last month, I sat on the couch with my husband watching the latest travesty on the news. I no longer remember the exact series of reports: families being torn apart, politics devoid of humanity, wildfires raging, murdered journalists murdered…
“And another thing,” I started. “The migrants from Central America…”
My husband held up his hand to stop me.
“Yes, I know,” he said, “Everything is terrible."
And in that moment it seemed it was, that that was the absolute truth. But I noticed as he said it, a part of me clenched.
I heard a voice say - No, everything is not terrible.
As a life coach, I know well that what you focus on grows.
If you focus on the terrible, you not only find yourself surrounded by awfulness, you tend to attract bad things.
I want the antithesis.
If I focus on what’s wonderful, not only do I get to be surrounded by wonder, I attract more wonder in my life.
Earlier this month, I started a challenge for myself that I’m calling 31 Days of Wonder (#31daysofwonder). During the entire month of December, I’m going to play with wonder. For me, that means looking for things that fill me up with joy and then writing, playing with words.
Words and images are both beautiful and wonderful in their ability to convey something exquisite, particular, and unique.
And they contain an infinite amount of possibility, the seeds of a hundred stories.
So each day, I capture an image of something that inspires me, and then I pair it up with what I find to be beautiful words.
If you’d like to join me, I’d love some company. I’ll be on Facebook at Diane Douiyssi and on my personal Instagram account @diane.douiyssi.
Whether you decide to do this challenge or not, I’d encourage each of you to start consciously choosing to focus on what is wonderful to you in whatever way means the most.
Before you know it, you’ll be surrounded by wonder.