Invisible Wondrous Things

My mother collected the three “cones” shown in the picture. They are actually the fruit of a magnolia tree, in various stages. To the left appear the unopened fruit pods. In the middle, the actual fruit – that look like red berries have popped out and finally at the right, all that remains is the vessel for the fruit.

I find these cones and the progression they represent fascinating, and indeed, wondrous. There is so much we are surrounded by daily that engenders wonder if we let it. Our lives are so busy that I fear we miss most of what’s around us.

I was walking down the sidewalk outside the building I work in and looking around, noticing that the gutters look like they are one piece but are actually in eight foot sections and that there are drag marks on the sidewalk where the local restaurateurs have dragged their garbage, leaving a trail behind. The leaves left an interesting pattern by the front door. Suddenly, I stopped and realized that I had recorded all this information unconsciously and puzzled over it. I wondered if everyone notices things like this but just never talks about it or if I do because I’m a writer and observant by nature.

Then I thought that one of the saddest things in the world is that we are so bunged up in our daily lives – all the silly trials, tribulations and unnecessary crap that we accept as necessary without thought – that we lose touch with everything good around us. It also serves to insulate us from the bad as well. We become cocooned and unable to perceive or feel. How much of this is biological? How much environmental?

Are we driven to ignore our surroundings and the minor miracles in order to focus on getting that bonus, raise or big house? Has evolution moved us out of the constantly alert because we no longer need to fear our environment so intensely? Or is that simply a mirage, and the truth is that we must be more vigilant against attack, vehicles, and lurking financial disasters?

Interesting questions, I think. However, the bigger issue is how much alienation from all the wonder that surrounds us every single moment are we willing to accept?