Wonder Year: A journey to find enchantment every day
366 Wonder Days Shared in 2020 — Now you can join me!
The barista on campus knows my order and we will mutually miss each other. I hope she still gets paid as universities move to online teaching.
And if you want to know my order: small iced Americano but in a grande cup with extra ice. She adds a splash of soy milk and caramel drizzle too. The best.
Today, on March 11, Trump banned all travel from Europe, the NBA suspended its season, universities are moving classes online, Coachella was rescheduled, book tours are stalling, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson reported having the coronavirus in Australia. My husband is sick. Today is Day 3 of real fear vibrating through the world. Each day it’s pivoting into worse places.
I thought hard about wonder today. A tree’s spring buds seemed too trivial to report. But I did find wonder in looking for it. A teacher of mine looked out the window, admiring a small dog. I laughed and felt lucky by purchasing one of the last cans of Lysol at Wal-Mart (it was generic AND mandarin scent). Tonight, Nick and I watched Knives Out 🔪. It is a film inspired by my absolute favorite game as a child: CLUE.
I found wonder in reflecting back to childhood, playing this game at the kitchen table, always figuring out a way to win.
It’s another day of fear over: politics (and mourning over not potentially having a woman president), the pandemic of the coronavirus, schools subsequently shutting down until fall or moving online, the ever-plunging stock market, just to name a few. In my personal life, family have been canceling travel plans. My grandmother, in her late eighties, has had a pneumonia for three weeks. I’m scared. I think we all are.
What we are experiencing as a world is unprecedented. So how do we find wonder? In crisis, it’s imperative to find the wonder.
Today, I wasn’t sure. But there were brief glimpses of wonder. Humor over a tweet. The joy of reheating and repurposing my homemade Turkey burgers from last night, my sister kicking butt on her final practicals in dental school, my grandpa and grandma’s voices on the other end of my phone line (and the opening of Del Taco in Stillwater).
The stock market crashed, Italy has been quarantined because of the coronavirus, American schools and communities are closing too, toilet paper is out of stock, and we are all tired after the first Monday of daylight savings.
So what does one do? What can one do?
Make delicious turkeys burgers, of course. The were so good I forgot an “after” photo.
Food. Can make things feel momentarily and briefly wonderful.
My mom and two sisters are women in STEM! I love that about them. Today, my mom gave a talk to young girls in STEM!
On International Women’s Day — I’m lifting all women who do it all and bring other women up with them. She’s a doctor and in the Army and says, “You don’t need your whole life planned. You just need the next step.” Happy ladies day to all the women I love, adore, look up to, and cherish! #girlpower #womeninstem #giveheratedtalk @ted
When I was a child, I loved family road trips. We would pack up the Suburban and drive all over the Midwest. Pit stops at gas stations, orders off the dollar menu, national monuments — those were all little treasures that added up to something larger. For the past four days, I’ve been on the “Texas Tour” with my son and husband and I’ve found wonder in those small moments. Passing popcorn around the car, singing the Moana soundtrack down the 35, running into new gas stations to use the restroom. It’s been a fun adventure. Today, we drove around San Antonio with no plan and found a little quiet place with swings that overlooked the river. It was wonderful. I’m grateful for these two.
The wonder occurs when his eyes look into mine, and our pitches catch the same tone, and we sing with joy in our hearts, right before bedtime.
Our favorite is the moon song:
I see the moon
The moon sees me
The moons sees somebody I want to see
God bless the moon
And God bless me
And God bless the somebody I want to see
Wonder Year: A journey to find enchantment every day 