100 Reasons To Not Kill Yourself #39.

A caterpillar struggling to emerge from a cocoon as a newly-minted butterfly.

Your first time seeing Star Wars.

Walking the Camino de Santiago, or any spiritual path or retreat.

Seeing where I’m going with this? This one comes to us courtesy of Jennie, whose amazing blog, A Teacher’s Reflections, is all about her crusade to educate young minds about tipping their bellman. Or something like that. At any rate, Jennie has inspired me and I hope you feel the same soon.

#39: A Sense Of Wonder.

When we’re kids, fresh out of the package, a sense of wonder comes with our initial operating software. And so everything from drawers that close on their own to anything we see on television blows our minds. And I mean everything. I once put my then-infant daughter to sleep by jingling my keys in front of her for thirty minutes; between that and a shot glass of vodka, she was out for eight hours.

That first parenting hack was free, by the way. Subscribe to my podcast “How To Mess Up Your Kids Without Anyone Ever Finding Out: Parenting Hacks For The Modern Dad”, today for more.

 

This song always makes me feel like a kid – and it also makes me want to cry my eyes out for some reason.

 

So kids have that sense of wonder that’s worth living for down to a kooky, drooling, booger-devouring science, but what about the rest of us?

Sure, some of us have never been able to grow up in the first place and so that feeling of amazement has never left but there are members of our society that severed their connection to their inner-child many moons ago. These people make me sad and I sometimes wish they would find an iceberg to float away on but then I remember that I’m supposed to be a compassionate human being. Which incidentally, is a terrible burden.

However, if you happen to be one of these lost souls I want to help you, in spite of my merciless instincts, that is. “How does one recover the ability to marvel at life, Hook?” you ask. Well, I’d better answer you, right? After all, you’re a paying customer. Here are five tips to help you capture the dazzle like a child captures bugs and tortures them with a magnifying glass or a jar without air holes.

ONE)  Move to Canada. Pot’s legal here now. We’ve already thanked Justin Trudeau on your behalf. Hey, you may be skeptical, but you’ve never seen a depressed pothead, have you?

TWO)  Hang around some kids. With their parents’ permission, not in a Michael Jackson sort of way. Then again, Jackson did have parental approval, kind of. Just observe some children drinking in the world’s goodness and if you’re willing to be open to the experience you should be golden.

THREE)  Go outside, stand still, look up… And just be. Feel the air against your skin. Listen closely to the activity around you. Breathe in the oxygen and stare up at the sky. Of course, this works best if you’re in an urban area rather than a city filled with automobiles, sirens, and toxic air, but make due with what you have. Just take time to really see the world instead of simply moving through and around it.

FOUR)  Easter may be over (depending on when you read this) but hide some sweets and have a hunt! Or play hide-and-go-seek, which you can turn into a truly naughty, fun game with your significant other if it’s just the two of you. Just pause from the rat race long enough to enjoy and savor some sweets, whether they be of the confectionery or human nature.

FIVE)  Go to a museum or talk to an old person. Find a way to experience history as much as possible without the benefit of a TARDIS or a souped-up DeLorean. This is an amazing world we live in and it has an even more amazing backstory. Speaking to the folks who literally built this world will afford you the opportunity to brighten their day, enjoy your present more by understanding the past, and most importantly, you’ll be able to blame the old buggers for the effed-up world they left us.

Now it’s up to you to expand this existence-rejuvenating list with your own selections. (I can’t do everything for  you, people!) So get to it and rediscover that sense of wonder before it’s too late.

See you in the lobby, friends…