Reverb '10

It seems that I can only post every few days. But I've been thinking about yesterday's reverb prompt, "Where I felt most alive this year" and now today's "How did I cultivate a sense of wonder". I thought over our recent trip to Florida and the day we spent at Salt Springs. It's a place to feel connected to nature and all that is alive. It feels ancient as if you are at the place life first crawled out of a 'primordial pond'. Then there was the day I got into the ocean for awhile. (which I don't do much anymore) The water is so nice and warm in Florida and the waves were perfect, not the scary surf of storms. I swam and floated and rode waves and found myself laughing out loud because it was fun. Perhaps going someplace new and stretching  beyond the well-known is a good way to cultivate wonder.

But then I've spent a lot of time right here, in my favorite dining room corner chair, looking out at the trees, (or sky, now that the leaves have fallen again). I've watched it snow from here and watched the leaves sprout in the spring. I look at the birds gathered around my feeder and see the buds on the bush that reaches all the way up to the window. It is a place of contemplation. It's a place where I ask God what am I to be doing? Where is God calling the congregation this year? It's a place where I wonder about retirement (in the very distant future) and wonder how wonderful it is to be right here. I wonder how I managed those years of getting through seminary and if I left scars on my family from days when I neglected them. I wonder how long this wonderful feeling can last? And from this place I get pulled out to walk the dog in the neighboring parks, or pulled into another book seeking answers to God's call, or pulled into a call, visit or email contact with someone from church or an old friend.

Perhaps, this chair, that I've been sitting in since before the furniture arrived one year ago this week, is my place of wonder AND where I feel most alive.