WONDEROAK

Dear Kids,

As we travel you will see many different things. You will see beautiful things, you will see hard things, you will see happy things, and you will see things that will forever leave you changed. That’s a good thing my love. I hope you meet the world, that you come to know it as your friend, and that you learn to love it with your whole heart.

I hope that no matter what you see, that you never stop opening your eyes wide with wonder.

We will hear of tragedy, we will hear of hate, and it will be so easy to close up tight. It will be easy to bury our heads, and shield our hearts. It will be easy not to want to know anymore and to protect ourselves from a world that feels cruel.

Let me tell you something: the world is still far more good than it is bad. It is bright and it is beautiful and if we close up tight, we will miss it. We will miss the magic that is people and places and traditions and colors and music. If we close up, if we wilt away, if we don’t look for the light in others…then fear wins.

Wonder is a choice. It’s a stance. It’s accepting an invitation to explore and to seek and to be delighted.

I see your delight when you taste something you’ve never tasted before, when you’re brave enough to play in the ocean for the first time, and when you make friends everywhere we go.

Be a student before you’re ever a teacher. Ask questions, be humble, don’t assume you know.

We will find what we’re looking for. If we look for hate, we will find it. If we look for conspiracies and evil intentions we will find them. Here’s the thing…we can’t control others, we can only control ourselves. So, will we be people who choose a life of skepticism and suspicion, or will we choose a life of wonder and a life of looking for the next person to love?

I hope you choose wonder.

I hope you choose wonder and I hope you choose love in action.

It’s okay to feel scared, but don’t trust the fear. -Aubree Poffenroth

Love,

Your Mama

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We are currently in Thailand with our family of six and our best friends. We’ve started @wylderpursuits to inspire families to get out and travel. For more like this you can follow me here, on Facebook and on Instagram. Photo cred belongs to the hubs: @grahamsjohnston.