I’ve been thinking a lot lately about curiosity.
We’re born to explore and question and discover. In fact, it’s through curiosity, along with a healthy dose of trial and error, that we become the people we are.
Unfortunately, we all get a bit freaked out by the trial and error part. Curiosity is awesome until we realize it can get us in trouble. Curiosity killed the cat.
And so, with time and the ups and downs of life we start to silence our curiosity. We fear what we will find on the other side if we question what we see before us. Who are we if we really examine how we feel about ourselves, if we analyze the judgments we make about others and if we peel away the layers of the world around us to reveal what’s underneath? We don’t like it. It scares us.
True curiosity requires the ability to be shocked, saddened, found wrong, and dismayed. It also means you’re ready to be forgiving, dedicated, thoughtful and kind.
Curiosity settles once and for all that life is not this or that, but rather that…and maybe that too…and also that. Curiosity says – I’ll take all that! Sign me up! Join me?
It shows us the awe-inspiring nature of the given moment.
It reminds us we’re one of many, while providing the gift of bringing us together.
Curiosity means more reading, more talking, more connecting, more watching, more thinking, more feeling, more wandering. More growing.
Curiosity takes guts, but you’ve got them. I just know it.
