On Wonder

Reflection number 1

The first reflection in Roots of Reflection contains remarkably few words.

Mossquill writes that "Wonder rarely announces its arrival."

He leaves the thought there, without much explanation. The illustrator, whoever they were, responds not with landscapes or spectacles, but with flowers quietly blooming from the thoughts of an ordinary woman. It reminded me of something. For some time I couldn't remember what and then I recollected.

I once met a woman who was quietly worried that she spent too much time daydreaming. She spoke of it almost apologetically, as though imagination were an unfortunate habit she ought to outgrow. She feared that it prevented her from paying proper attention to the real world. But after a long conversation, I realized that almost all of her daydreams began with something she had genuinely noticed. A peculiar cloud that made her wonder about the direction of the wind, an unfamiliar bird that sent her searching through books later that evening, an old stone wall that convinced her there must once have been a forgotten garden nearby, a stranger whose expression made her invent an entire history that, whether true or not, somehow made the world feel larger.

She was not escaping reality, she was following it. Her imagination wasn't replacing the world, it was growing from it.

People often imagine wonder as something dramatic, a mountain summit, a shooting star, an unexpected journey. Those moments deserve their reputation, and they have a way of announcing themselves before we have even found the words to describe them. But I have come to believe they are the exception. Most wonder arrives quietly. It slips into ordinary afternoons disguised as questions we almost ignore, details we nearly overlook, or thoughts we might have dismissed had we been in a little more of a hurry.

Perhaps that is why Mossquill says it rarely announces its arrival. Not because wonder is scarce but because it is polite enough not to interrupt. It simply waits to see who is paying attention.

The illustration reproduced opposite this reflection can also be found in my collection, should you wish to spend a little longer with it.

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