Chihuahuas, Pit Bulls, and Cultivating Wonder

On wonder

“I wonder if…” bird began before bear cut in.

“What might happen,” bear said, “if you rearranged that to ‘if I wonder’?”

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📷: One of These Things in black and red
…

“What kind of dog is she?”

“We thought,” I replied, “she was a chipittie, but…”

“A what?!” the woman responded, cutting me off midsentence.

We ran into her on our walk this morning, and now she was on one knee scratching Stevie’s head.

“A mix of chihuahua and pit bull…”

“That’s not possible,” she said, shorting me again. “Really?”

Before I had a chance to respond, she was already up and starting to walk away.

“Wonders never cease, do they?” she said over her shoulder, more to herself than me, more of a statement, than question.

Wonder. n. a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

Wonder. v. desire or be curious to know something.

I don’t know about you, but I take a lot of things for granted:

Gravity. Skin. Dreams.
Pollination. Poop. Coffeemakers.
Language. Flavor. Feelings.

Wonders, one and all, yet how often do we just accept these – and a million more – as expected, routine, everyday givens?

In essence, ceasing wonder.

Live footage of the Tour de France is streaming from San Sebastian, Spain, to a screen on my phone here in Portland, Oregon, then broadcast into my Bluetooth earbuds as I type on a computer, words appearing on another screen as my fingers tap plastic.

Amazing, right? Mindblowing, really.

When we strip back our everyday taken-for-granteds, the magic reveals itself: a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

What can you strip back today to reveal something wonder-full?