Having always worked to school holiday patterns, I know from experience that late July into August can be a time when rhythms become blurry for me as the days and weeks don’t have the same pattern that I am used to and begin to merge into each other. It’s a time when I find I am continually asking ‘what day is it?’ and when the rhythms of Sabbath and Stillness don’t quite seem to punctuate my days and weeks in the ways that they usually do.

This year, I decided to pay attention to that and embrace it rather than allow feelings of guilt to creep in – because summer is also a time when I can enjoy life at a slower pace … time to notice and be present! And so, this summer, I decided to go on a ‘Wonder Wander’, taking the opportunity of some less structured time to press into the rhythm of wonder – a kind of pilgrimage into wonder. I created 6 weeks of mini reflections, that I posted on the Living Well facebook page, with tiny thoughts and quotes to inspire my wondering each week and allow others to join in with the fun, and I enjoyed a six week ‘journey’ of learning, reflection and discovery into more of the Wonder that surrounds me! 

And over on the Wonderful Me! page, I created some family activity ideas to inspire families to take a Wonder Wander together (If you missed them, you’ll find all 6 weeks on the facebook pages – and don’t forget to like and follow the pages while you are there to stay in the loop!)

Here are a few things I discovered along the way:

Being intentional was key!
This might sound ridiculously obvious but I massively noticed the impact that being intentional had on changing my natural habits.
I had decided to keep a tiny wonder journal – jotting down 1 or 2 things at the end of each day that I had noticed and ‘wondered’ about. I started my journey full of enthusiasm and for the first day or so enjoyed time noticing more of what was around me and found it easy to think of 1 or 2 things to note down each evening. However, it did not take very long before I was getting into bed, noticing my journal on my bedside table and realising that I had forgotten all about wonder that day!!
I am so grateful that I had started a wonder journal – because I think my ‘pilgrimage’ would have been a very short lived one without it! But seeing it there each evening brought it back to mind. The amazing thing about wonder is that the Wonder of God surrounds us each and every day – whether we notice it or not! So, even if I had missed most of it that day – it was still there to discover. On the days when I had been less present – I spent time, as I wrote my journal, asking God to show me where He had been at work in my life that day … where there had been glimpses of His wonder.
On reflection, writing a wonder journal, at least at the start, definitely gave me the structure and prompt that I needed to embed a rhythm of wonder in how I approached each day.

Building a rhythm of Wonder enabled me to be more present each day
As I journeyed with wonder – and enjoyed some of the Wonderful Me! activity ideas – I found I was noticing more and more. Roadside verges that I had previously driven past with barely a glimpse were suddenly awash with colour, diversity and beauty. Rather than simply noticing yellow flowers in the hedgerows – I began to see how many different types of yellow flower there are. It was like switching from black and white to colour TV – it had always been in colour, I just hadn’t seen it like that before! And the more I noticed, the more I realised there was to notice – it sharpened my focus and drew me in, making me more of an active participant in my day rather than a distracted bystander.

Wonder opens the door to thankfulness
Carl Jung once said ‘If our religion is based on wonder, our chief emotion will be gratitude.’
The more attuned I became to the wonder that surrounded me, the more aware I became of the awesomeness of God. And the more attention I gave to that – the more it filled my mind – the more peace and thankfulness I felt. Wonder has an incredible ability to shift perspective. It makes space for gratitude that bubbles into hope.

My expectation levels raised that I would hear God speaking to me
I wrote a blog and a resource on wonder called ‘A How?, a Wow! and a Bow’ (you can read it here) – so it shouldn’t have been a great surprise to me that the more Wow! wonder I noticed, the more of Jesus I encountered – but seeing the truth of it in action probably was my most stand out reflection from the past few weeks.
Creation is amazing! There is no doubt that a walk in nature is good for the soul! The thing is – we can wonder at the beauty that surrounds us but we find a peace that passes understanding when we also encounter its Creator. And what I found was that, as I became intentional about wonder … as I made space to notice the Wonder of God around me and in my life … as I allowed my attention to be drawn to the things I noticed … I found God using it to speak to me.
I noticed a wildflower meadow full of different flowers in different colours and different shades and felt God speak to me about his abundant and extravagant nature…
I noticed a flower thriving in the most unusual and unlikely of places and felt God prompt me that He is my provider and sustainer …
And the more I became aware of that – the more I began to expect it – it breathed life into my prayer life in a beautiful, wonder-full way.

So there you go – my headline reflections from my pilgrimage into Wonder this summer. My prayer is that I remember to walk with wonder into the business of term – to continue to be aware of the whisper of God that surrounds me.

I’ll finish with a quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who once said:

‘Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement … get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.’