How to Live a Life of Wonder

1. On Joy and Sorrow

1.1. To find peace of mind and lightness of heart, learn to see all your emotions as an artist sees their subject

1.2. See them as something beautiful and terrible and endlessly fascinating, never right or wrong, but always miraculous.

2. On Little Things

2.1. Much of mental health and wellbeing comes from the capacity to revel in the joy of tiny things

3. On Work

3.1. Can we learn to see love’s subtle form in all our work, big and small?

3.2. All forms of work become meaningful when we learn to see them as acts of love.

4. On Teachers

4.1. The best teachers don’t download information — they inspire us to learn.

5. On Time

5.1. Schedules, appointments, deadlines, timelines, alarms, reminders, calendar events are all important

5.2. But spend time on the things that are timeless too: love, wonder, curiosity, learning, growth, play, community

6. On Children

6.1. While parenting see yourselves as gardeners:

6.1.1. Calm stewards of tiny seeds that have within them unimaginable potential

6.1.2. Your only job is to tend the soil, water occasionally, and allow for lots of sunshine.

7. On Friendship

7.1. Relish all life’s vistas.

8. On Freedom

8.1. Freedom is a means not an end.

8.1.1. To what end do you desire freedom?

8.1.2. What will you do with it if it comes?

8.1.3. Are you sure you’re prepared for it?

8.2. First-year college students and new retirees often have remarkably similar patterns of depression.

9. On Love

9.1. So many unhappy relationships come from having the wrong metaphors for love.

10. On Pain

10.1. "Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain."

11. On Reason and Passion

11.1. The dance between reason and passion is endlessly fascinating and beautiful.

11.2. Why do we insist on ranking and prioritizing? Can’t we marvel at both?

12. On the Self

12.1. The way we approach the sea is probably a good way to approach ourselves: play in it, respect it, but above all else, wonder at it.