Live with a Sense of Eternal Wonder

Glancing at the bridge that crosses Ladybird Lake, what a wonderful city. It's partially cloudy. The skyline looks pretty modern and iconic, with reflections of the trees and river in the newly constructed glass.

It was a beautiful sight, and it reminded me of how my mind takes these things for granted. I remember when I started living in Austin, I was always amused and amazed and wondered. As in every other city I’ve lived for the first few months, everything felt novel and exciting.

And then after a while, my mind started getting used to it, normalizing the once novel experiences. I started having thought patterns that I had in the previous places I lived in, and I got sucked into the daily errands and obligations of life. I started having similar emotional and mental challenges. I found myself internally struggling with the same things that I was struggling with before.

Circumstances change, people change. You meet new people and you stop hanging out with other people. The details are different, but the lessons are similar, one after the other.

Crossing through the beautiful landscape made me think: “Wow, I love this, and I don't come here as often, and it's right here, 15 minutes away from my home. Why did I lose the sense of wonder?”

No matter where I go, no matter where I am, there I go with myself. I will never be able to escape myself, even if I move to the most wonderful and exciting city in the world. So I will do my best to avoid taking the simple and wonderful things around me for granted. To remind myself of what I have, of what I love.

That’s what we must do. Experience everything with intention so that we can keep learning and reflecting on those things we experience, and become better every day. To stop the mind from falling into negative habits and old thought patterns.

You have to cultivate that sense of wonder. Eternal wonder. There is going to be pain and struggle in life. There are going to be obligations. That's the way it is. But if you shift your perspective, you can appreciate what you have around, embrace everything life is trying to teach you and live with a sense of wonder.