The Landscape of Wonder

It's been a while right?  I really am a writer I promise!  I hope to increase my frequency of blog posts...honestly.  Having a 3 year old doesn't exactly allow for lots of free thinking but every now and then I get the chance to take a trip back into the soul mines...as I wave goodbye to Elmo and his friends along the way. : )

Life has been full with transition, music, travel and family.  I've been so grateful for the opportunities that have come our way already this year and have been peeling back the layers as I weigh the busyness of life and what value there is to behold behind the surface.

There is no doubt that blessings are...well...blessings...but what I've learned is this:  I believe the grace to actually ENJOY these gifts in the moments they are given is indeed the greater BLESSING.  And I believe the greater blessing has a name: WONDER.

As I've gotten older I've grown weary of 'going through the motions' and coasting on auto-pilot.  I've grown weary of not being fully present in the moment and falling prey to the "what's next" syndrome. 

In this most recent season of life I've decided to pray these moments will hold more than just achievement.  I have prayed that each opportunity will carry the joy of wonder. 

This last run of live dates on the West Coast was an answer to that prayer when the gift of new friendships and the richness of new stories taught me lessons that I couldn't have learned anywhere else and from anyone else but only in those exact moments.  I ache to think about the beauty that could've been lost underneath the weight of the tasks at hand...buried underneath the weight of progress.

There are some things I know.  I know I will develop deep lines in my face, lines that not even Mr. Clean's Magic eraser can erase (although it is salvation to the parents whose toddlers draw on walls!).  I know my hair will change from deep brown to silver gray to white someday (even tho I plan to go a little Bonnie Raitt with it!) I know my voice will one day weaken and I will no longer be able to sing above a whisper.  I am certain I will mourn the loss of all these things. But in spite of the passing of time and the ever-changing seasons of life I pray that God would allow me to retain the JOY of wonder.  I pray a simple prayer...that the enemies of busyness, frustrated plans, betrayal, disillusionment and the general harsh elements of time would never take away my child-like sense of wonder...in this my Father's world.

"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering."
Saint Augustine

Indeed there was much beauty to behold along the landscape of our West Coast travels but the highest and best, the richest and most purpose-filled beauty was held in the stories and in the friendships gained.  In my giving I received so much more than I could've ever imagined.  What a blessing to stand in wonder at the beauty God breathes into life right before our very eyes.  He is still a God who creates extraordinary things out of sheer nothingness and He can always be found in the landscape of wonder.