Wondering in Stillness
Curating a Creative Life — Wednesday Wonders
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For part of the day today I turned on Christmas music for my life’s background music. I have a collection of a few Christmas songs I find grounding when I feel my brain or my focus or my life are spinning a little too wildly into chaos. I mean music itself is incredibly grounding, but this playlist of favorite Christmas songs ushers me into the presence of God. As I listen to lyrics reminding me how God came down to join us here, in this steeped-in-chaos world, I release whatever breath I’ve been holding and the tension I’ve held gripped in my mind.
One of the songs that almost always eases my mind’s chaos and my heart’s overwhelm is I Wonder as I Wander. The sweet and simple folk tune has a way of seeping into me so that I feel myself in the lyrics and in the world where I am. In other words, it grounds me; it takes me out of my head and my clouded anxious thoughts and draws me back into the moment, into my kitchen or my living room.
Tonight, as I reflect on how that song met me today, I find myself practicing a bit of wondering, wondering what’s possible and within my grasp as I pursue the creative life about which I’ve been writing. Admittedly, life can sometimes close off our dreams because of its demands and busyness. When this happens I find it helpful to let my mind wonder, sometimes in stillness and sometimes while my body wanders, through my neighborhood or along a park path. Tonight, it is a wondering in stillness.
Tonight, it is a wondering in freedom and simplicity, like the tune of, I Wonder as I Wander. Nothing complicated. Nothing critical. Simply freedom to wonder, to let loose my curiosity and my creative desires and follow them where they lead.
