August 30, 2026: Choosing Wonder Over Worry
When I was still teaching, I started off each school year reading a children’s book by Kevin Henkes, called Wemberly Worried. The story was about an imaginative little mouse named Wemberly who literally worried about everything. Whether it was small things like the tree in her front yard and cracks in her ceiling, to big things, like beginning a new school year. After the story was finished, I shared with my students that as a child, I was a Wemberly and that having a creative imagination made the list of worries even longer. I opened the discussion to any worries that they might have about school, to hopefully allay any fears they might have about our upcoming school year. It never failed to surprise me at some of the worries the children would share, but these were addressed and the relief on their faces was palpable.
Althougn I’m primarily an optimist, even after all these years, I still have the tendency to be a Wemberly. (Once again, a creative imagination can envision all kinds of troublesome scenarios, especially after listening to the news and doom scrolling through social media.) My husband Ron has often told me that “95% of the things I worry about never come to fruition, and the remaining 5% are things I probably couldn’t do anything about.” I also received wise advice from my almost 101 year-old step-dad, who told me to stop building bridges (of worry), until I actually got there and discovered whether or not I even needed to build one.” My doctors told me that “too much worry can lead to symptoms of stress, potentially impacting both our mental and physical health. ” Over the years I’ve tried a variety of approaches from counseling, limiting caffeine and physical exercise, to medication, meditation, and yoga.
While meditation, physical exercise and yoga continue to be part of my routine, what I have discovered to be the most helpful, is when those “what-if worries” begin to swirl around my mind, I stop, take a deep breath, and focus my attention on what is actually happening around me….. in the present moment. Instead of racing down the road of future concerns and uncertainties, I set an intention to both notice and appreciate the things in my surroundings that fill me with a sense of awe, gratitude and wonder. It can be something little, like the way the sunlight reflects through a vase of flowers, painting rainbows on the wall. It can be quietly sipping a cup of my favorite tea, watching the hummingbirds dart around the hanging flower baskets. Focusing on the here and now, and paying attention to the feelings, sensations and surroundings, has been an effective deterrent to spiraling worries.
The tendency to worry, like Wemberly the mouse, is part of who I am. But now I can choose to stop the cycle, open my eyes, and be present for all the little wonders that fill each day.
Thank you for taking the time to read my reflections. Once again, I researched and have discovered a treasure trove of quotes about wonder. These are some of my favorites. If you have strategies that help you when the “squirrely-whirly-worries” hit, share them in the comments below, as well as quotes on wonder that inspire you. I invite you to share this post with any of the Wemberly’s you have in your life.
In Peace and Harmony,
Wendy Oellers-Fulmer
“It is a happiness to wonder; — it is a happiness to dream.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.”
― Betty Smith, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
― Franz Kafka
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
― W.B. Yeats
“The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.”
― Albert Einstein
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
― Socrates
“Our society is much more interested in information than wonder, in noise rather than silence…And I feel that we need a lot more wonder and a lot more silence in our lives”
― Fred Rogers
“You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down”
― Charlie Chaplin
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
― Henry Miller
“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”
― Walt Whitman
“It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. ”
― Rachel Carson
“Let us dare to dream and shoot for the moon. Even if we don’t fetch the moon, a million stars may fill us with wonder. (“Happiness blowing in the wind”)”
― Erik Pevernagie
“…Isn’t it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive–it’s such an interesting world. It wouldn’t be half so interesting if we knew all about everything, would it? There’d be no scope for imagination then, would there?”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”
― Alice Walker, The Color Purple