Mind Wanderer’s Lane

August: On Wonder and AweAugust 5When you’ve built a life you enjoy and have fallen in love with your routine, it’s good to stick to it. But too much of anything—even good things—can wear on you. It can become a sort of anaesthesia and numb you to life. That’s where looking at the world in unfamiliar ways comes into play. And it doesn’t have to mean looking at all new things, either. You don’t have to travel to new places and speak to new people (although this is wonderful, too). It just means adopting a new perspective, figuratively or literally—getting down on the ground to look at the small creatures and plants, looking away from your phone on a walk and up at the sky instead to see the clouds moving and the birds traveling to their next mysterious destination, or imagining what life might be like for the stranger you met at the store the other day or the person driving in the car next to you. It means intentionally viewing your moment to moment and day to day with fresh eyes and in a new light.See that ant marching through your driveway? Take a walk with it and see where it goes. At the bookshop again? Why not bypass your favorite section (fantasy, duh) and head to historical fiction for a change? Watch the dragonfly hunt with its lethal, near-perfect efficiency and consider how it began its life submerged in a nearby creek or pond, only to crawl out, molt its skin, and take to the sky.There are endless ways to view the familiar with unfamiliarity. And it’s not even difficult. Just get up, get outside, slow down, let your mind wander, and let it happen.Reflection title: Mind Wanderer’s LaneCreative inspiration:  Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for WonderReflection question: What is familiar in my life that I can apply an unfamiliar lens to? When did I last break up the routine? Is it time to change things up a bit?