The Three Bears and a Sense of Wonder
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by Ellyn Davis
Contrasts
It always amazes me how unselfconscious children are.
Last week I drove with a friend along the Mogollan Rim near Payson, Arizona. One of the first places we stopped to explore was Clear Creek, a beautiful stream that runs along a rocky bed between low bluffs.
By the time I hiked down to the creek, a van had pulled up along the road and a group of about a dozen children poured out followed by two very harried-looking adults.
The children ranged in age from around six to 10 years old and were laden with nets, buckets, magnifying glasses and all sorts of collecting paraphernalia. As soon as the van doors were flung open they began racing down the bluff toward the water.
Because the water was crystal clear (hence the name Clear Creek), it was easy to see every crawfish, minnow, salamander, and water creature in the rocky streambed. Soon the air was ringing with squeals of delight and shouts of “Look at that!” “Oh, I caught one!” and “Come over here, quick!”
The kids were having a great time, splashing and sloshing in the water and catching whatever would hold still long enough to be scooped into a net or bucket.
It reminded me of the first stanza of the poem “Barter” by Sara Teasdale:
Life has loveliness to sell, all beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff, soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up holding wonder like a cup.
Next to drive up was a carload of teens. Rock music blared from subwoofers and the boom, boom, boom of the bass reverberated up the canyon. Four very bored looking teens got out of the car, took one disinterested look around, jumped back in the car, and roared off in a cloud of red dust.
What a contrast!
It only took a few short years of age difference for the wonder and excitement about natural beauty, splashing water, and living things to fade to the point that there was nothing appealing about it anymore.
Wonder-full Moments
As I pondered the scene I had just witnessed, I began to realize that what had been lost was the sense of wonder. I’ve often lectured that science should really be about activating a sense of wonder about the natural world, but now I realized that LIFE should really be about activating and nourishing a sense of wonder about LIFE.
Years ago, Rachel Carson, the famed naturalist, wrote a book called The Sense of Wonder. That book is sorely needed today. In it she says,
"A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood."
I particularly love her thoughts about looking up at a night sky filled with stars when she muses, "if this were a sight that could be seen only once in a century...this little headland would be thronged with spectators. But it can be seen many scores of nights in any year, and so the lights burned in the cottages and the inhabitants probably gave not a thought to the beauty overhead; and because they could see it almost any night, perhaps they will never see it."
I think that’s the point. Because things like stars, beautiful creeks, and crawfish are available to anyone who wants to take the time to look at them, people don’t take the time, so they live in a world continually removed from the wonder of life.
I have a friend, Bill McRae, who is 61 years old and understands how to keep alive his sense of wonder about life. Bill says, “At my age, there are very few things left to do for the first time.” Bill nourishes his sense of wonder by continually trying new things.
 After my friend and I climbed back up the bluff from the hike along Clear Creek and we began driving toward the Mogollan Rim, I thought about how contact with nature is one of the ways we cultivate a sense of wonder. And I began praying for more wonder-filled moments in my life.
A few minutes later, we stopped and got out of the car to take photos of the canyon at the base of the Rim.
Suddenly, my wonder-full moment occurred. A mother bear and her two cubs sauntered out on the road not 100 feet from where we were standing, walked around for a few minutes, and then slipped back into the woods.
 Til next time....
The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson. This is a wonderful book about children and nature, filled with lush photographs. But on a deeper level, this book is about nourishing for yourself and those you love the delight, surprise and awe one feels when seeing things as a child does for the first time - a sense of wonder. |
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