Category: wonder

What Is Your Spice of Life?

“You may be able to find this in your studies, your daily vocation, or even your career, but for many of us, what you do to earn a living may not make up what you are excited most about in the act of living. We often must look elsewhere outside what we do day to day to find our ‘spice of life.’”

How do we explore the full richness of life? This is the kind of age-old question that philosophers and writers have asked for many centuries. What truly fulfills us and makes us enjoy what life has to offer? I would argue that it’s more important than ever to find the ‘spice’ in life that makes you excited, engaged, and fulfilled. You may be able to find this in your studies, your daily vocation, or even your career, but for many of us, what you do to earn a living may not make up what you are excited most about in the act of living. We often must look elsewhere outside what we do day to day to find our ‘spice of life.’

To get your ‘spice of life’ these days, you have to be willing to put yourself out there and try different things. What gets you excited, motivated, and fulfills you today may not be what motivates you years or decades down the line. You should remember that you won’t enjoy everything you do or try forever so it’s important to stay open minded about other possibilities and to not be tethered to one hobby or interest only. Some people have lifelong loves for different activities, hobbies, or sports, which is great, but you may not be able to do it for the rest of your life so keep it in mind that you don’t get attached to one single activity, hobby, or sport because you may not be able to commit to it forever or be as productive or successful at it in the long term.

I think it is wise to keep your identity pliable not just for one job or one academic calling but to be open to learning new things, to experimenting with new ideas, and to trying out different activities that you have some basic interest in. You won’t love everything you do, and you may only do it for a few months or a few years, but it is much better than the alternative of not having done anything at all. Our collective attention spans have become so short due to modern technology that we don’t even try new things or are patient with it because we are too distracted by the latest gadget or technological development.

True fulfillment and satisfaction can come from mastery of a subject or an activity for which you pored countless hours into and never gave up at it. You can also find the ‘spice of life’ from having fun with it and doing it just for enjoyment alone and not to master it completely. Life has a lot to offer and it’s important to keep that in mind beyond our careers and our education. We may have limited time to do what we want to do but we must prioritize that time because without our own choice(s) in what we want to do, we will not find any fulfillment at all. We can find fulfillment both in our day-to-day pursuits but also in those pursuits we do each week or each month without a set schedule in mind.

To find consistent joy in life is not easy, but it can be done by not giving up, by trying out new things, and by doing those things consistently for a little while to see if it is giving you happiness or fulfillment. Being able to give an activity or a hobby at least a few weeks or a month to try it out is key. If you find you are getting bored with something and don’t enjoy it as much or as often, it is okay to put it on the back burner, but don’t be afraid to try something else. Our likes and dislikes change as we go through life, but it is important to keep finding that ‘spice’ in our lives that gets us excited, keeps us motivated, and brings us joy.

Remember to never completely giving up on finding your own passions and fulfillment in life. It is not easy and is something you must continually motivate yourself to do but it can help your life satisfaction out to have something that you enjoy outside of what you have to do each day. Having nothing to enjoy or have fun doing could remove all the ‘spice’ or ‘zest’ that makes life worth living and you want to avoid getting into that kind of scenario. Be ready to try new things, find activities to do by yourself or with others, and be open minded in what you think you would enjoy.

It helps to make a list of activities or things that you have done that you would like to do again as well as those activities or things you’ve never done before but would like to try. There are tons of activities, hobbies, sports, or things to do in this world and you just have to try a few at a time to retain the ‘spice of life.’ Make sure you live life to the fullest in this way and I promise that you will not be disappointed by making the conscious choice to try new things.

Adriatic Rainbow

Rainbow over the Adriatic Sea

Camera: iPhone 12

Location: Dubrovnik, Croatia

A Sense of Wonder

If you were to define the word ‘wonder’, you would characterize it as meaning a feeling of amazement or admiration caused by seeing or witnessing something beautiful, unexpected, captivating, and inexplicable. When you are a child, it’s easy to have that sense of wonder about the world. Your sense of curiosity and disbelief is quite high and your imagination can run wild believing in the possibilities of the unknown.

Even as we grow older and become adults, we still have a sense of wonder that never fully leaves us and is part of our essence as human beings. While you may not have the same sense or amount of wonder as you did when you were a child, it’s important to never fully extinguish that feeling and to let it stay within you even if you are an adult or in your elderly years.

Having a sense of wonder connects you to your childhood years and reignites the kid within you because that part of your being never truly goes away unless you let it. By maintaining that curiosity and desire to know about the world, this helps us keep our sense of wonder about life and its’ beauty. It can be easy nowadays to be jaded about the state of the world and to think that everything is going to hell in a handbasket.

While there are certainly serious problems to be fixed in our ever-changing and complicated world, being doom and gloom about it 24 / 7 won’t make you feel any better. You have to maintain the ability to never be too down or be too up about your surroundings. While there can be a lot of ugliness to be found, there is also a staggering amount of beauty to be in awe about.

I believe that it can be much easier to see things through a negative lens and seek out the ugliness in life. It’s harder yet much more rewarding to seek out the beauty and wonder that you can find if you know where to look. You also have to take the time to enjoy the beauty of things and open yourself up to the beauty of the world. While it may be cliché to state this, you have to have an open heart and an open mind. If you close yourself off to the wonders of life, you’ll never really be able to appreciate them fully.

A sense of wonder has to be cultivated over a long period of time and doesn’t happen overnight. When you are a child, you’re amazed by anything and almost everything new and unique. As you get older and you experience more of life, it can be more and more difficult to feel amazement or be captivated by life. Each person has a different sense of wonder, and different things amaze different people. When I think about wonder though, there are a few things that cause me to feel that unexpected thrill or captivation.

I think most people would agree that a sunrise or a sunset could really create awe and wonder in a person. The colors and the vibrancy of the environment when the sun lights up your world at dawn’s break or when it fades into darkness to make way for the stars and night sky; those moments can truly captivate a person’s imagination. You could also make the case that when you witness the sunrise from a mountain top or see the sun set from the backdrop of a vast ocean, witnessing those natural occurrences are too beautiful to be put into words.

Sunrises and sunsets never get old for me because they are never the same and they are always different depending upon which environment you’re witnessing them in. It only takes a few minutes to stop what you’re doing in your hectic day-to-day life to really enjoy the spectacle of the sun’s rising and setting. It’s also a reminder about how our time here on Earth is limited and that there are cosmic occurrences that happen beyond our control and our understanding.

I think this is mainly why solar eclipses are so powerful to witness in person because you’re seeing an event that is beyond human control and that only comes around once or twice in a lifetime. Those men, women, and children who traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to see the recent solar eclipse occur across the continental United States are in touch with their sense of wonder, and they believe in its’ ability to make you feel astonished, wowed, and even humbled.

Witnessing the sun’s and the moon’s movements aren’t the only ways to cause yourself to feel wonder though. There are hundreds, if not thousands of possibilities out there that will make your jaw drop in disbelief. I have always thought of photography as a good way to capture the wonders of the world, and I have taken many photos throughout my previous travels in order to really remember those special moments of life when I was on the road. Beyond just taking photos, it’s really wonderful to interact with your environment by jumping in a freezing lake, hiking up a mountain, smelling different flowers in a garden, rafting down a streaming river, etc. Those moments really make you feel alive and help to maintain a sense of wonder about the world.

You don’t have to travel, take photos, or be an adventure junkie to have a sense of wonder though. If you’re willing to challenge yourself by learning new things and bettering yourself, that will help you maintain a healthy curiosity about life and a thirst for knowledge. Whether its’ learning a new trade, developing a website, or speaking a new language, the pursuit of knowledge in different areas is a great idea and the things you will learn about yourself and the world around you will captivate and excite you. If you’re curious, confident, and willing to have an open mind, the world will teach you many things if you open yourself up to the possibilities.

Never let the flame inside you go out. As a child, you definitely did not have worry about wonder because you always had it and every day, you most likely had energy and a curiosity not easily extinguished. However, when you get older and more accustomed to the ways of the world, it can be very tempting to think of everything as mundane, childish, and routine, but that’s simply not how it should be.

However, The differences that occur when you’re a teenager or a fully-grown adult is that you have to pursue the wonder for yourself. You have to take the time and put yourself out there to figure out what really captivates you. Everybody has a unique way of seeing the world but make sure it’s not always from a serious and pessimistic point of view. Let yourself be wowed by the unknown or by the newly discovered. Pursue the passions and the beauty in life based on what fills your heart or your mind up.

For some, it may be playing Jazz music and for others, it may be hiking through the mountains. The best thing about experiencing wonder is that it is ever-present in our lives but you have to be aware of what reaches out to you and touches your soul. Most people live out their lives not fully embracing the wonders around them.

You have to be always on the lookout for what fills your heart up with joy and happiness whether it’s a watching beautiful sunset over the water, viewing an original painting by Claude Monet, or playing Beethoven in a symphony orchestra as your friends and family sit in the audience. Always be looking out for the wonders in life, otherwise, you’ll never find them at all.