The season we just finished can be described as a season of wonders.  For Christians the wonder is the virgin birth of Jesus, for Jews the wonder is the miracle of the oil burning for eight days and for non religious people, the wonder might be that everyone survived all the stress.  

These wonders have become part of our heritage and a great number of us celebrate with varied degrees of sincerity.  Some go through the motions because it’s expected but without emotional involvement.   Others invest in elaborate meals and gorgeous decorations but remain essentially free of belief.  Some have strong beliefs, but modest means, and others enjoy riches in both the material and the spiritual realm.

Merchants and retailers exercise their own brand of wonder in that they sincerely hope that a great quantity of money will change hands to their benefit.  

Children and young adults mirror the merchants in hoping for a lively exchange of goods and “gold” and all are joined in wishing that this season will surpass all previous seasons.

While all of this is occurring people seem to forget the everyday wonders such as the birth of a baby or the fun of an automatic door.  I observed a small boy, probably 7 or 8 years old, happily moving back and forth in front of an automatic door.  His facial expression reflected pure delight in his ability to cause the door to magically open in response to his presence. 

I felt enormously privileged by being allowed to witness this delightful sense of wonder.  The experience happily reminded me  of other exquisite instances of wonder such as watching a HypnoBirthing® mother breathe her baby down to be rewarded by the birth of a calm and alert baby. 

The HypnoBirthing mother and the young boy with the automatic door both demonstrate that when left to their own devices they are capable of performing wondrous deeds and that their sense of wonder is intact.  As for the rest of us the lesson is that we need to focus inward to find and retain our sense of wonder.