Beauty is wonder intensified. Beauty stems from our innate curiosity to discover and uncover. It’s an emotional motivation to learn more about the great strangeness of the world. Why are these wildflowers so bright and scattered? Why does this melody resonant so deeply with me? How is that this human understands me so naturally? Wonder and beauty are two sister sensations that naturally exist together.

In our youths, wonder came so easily. We built homes for fairies in the garden and the tales we heard before bed would slip into our realities amidst a serious game of make-believe. Wonder and appreciation for all things was inherent in our childish state. And so, we found the beauty in so many things. Yet in adulthood, finding the once bright shimmer of the world’s beauty has become more like a daily game of hide and seek. We hang up our coats from a long day and forget to appreciate golden hour. We make dinner for ourselves and overlook how the cracks in our wooden tables look like spiderwebs. We forget and we overlook so often that appreciating beauty becomes secondary to the ordinary and expected. Our sense of wonder has become misguided.

So we must choose to find beauty. We must actively believe in seeking wonder. We must fight to appreciate the unexpected and glorious and strange and simple. Because we’ve seen a lot of things, and our memories have tarnished from the first time we saw a shooting star or heard our mother’s singing voice. We must find the new in the old. Because where we find wonder, is where we find beauty.

So go right now and seek it. Rediscover your familiar surroundings. Walk. Observe. Ask. Ponder. Introduce yourself. Color. Make. Try. Find the excitement of a rush of cold air after opening the windows. Seek an exchange with someone new. Look for colors in unexpected places. Take the scenic route home. Make up stories. Play new music. Create shadow puppets on the wall. Tell bed times stories. Find the grand newness in everything.

May something wonderful (and beautiful) find its way back to you today.