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I’ve been trying to be more intentional these days about living with a sense of wonder. I see the trait so evident in my children and witness the joy and rapture they have with the smallest of pleasures. It’s inspiring and humbling to encounter the depth of their simple delights.

Then, yesterday, I came across a quote that stopped me in my tracks…

Wonder at reality demands the humility to sit at the foot of a dandelion. The proud are so full of themselves that there is little room to marvel at anything else. Saints are typically awestruck at an insect, a flower, a star because they are burning with love and rooted in perceiving honesty. That is, they are humble. Chesterton once observed that “a mediocre and mild modesty does not cleanse the soul with fire and make it clear like crystal: it does not (like a strict and searching humility) make a man as a little child who can sit at the feet of grass. It does not make him look up and see marvels: for Alice must grow small if she is to be Alice in Wonderland.

Respect for the earth requires a love for it and the humility to be amazed and thrilled by it. I need reminders of this, living in such a tech-oriented world that continually bombards me with inventions that promise greater and greater quality of life, the coolest of which are trying to lower their eco-footprint. But, if I get more excited by the “the newest eco-gadget” than I do by of the sound leaves make when I walk through them, I’m still probably a bit off-kilter, probably a bit too close to the proud side of life.

“Alice must grow small if she is to be Alice in Wonderland.” Such a rich correlation. Living small is more than simply adopting eco-friendly practices to reduce your carbon footprint and whatnot. It’s as much an attitude of the heart–the willingness to allow ourselves to be small, to be (like children) so utterly thrilled that we lose ourselves in the small but beautiful. In fact, the two (action and attitude) relate well together: when you practice a “less is more” lifestyle, you tend to be better able to focus on the “more” in the “less.” That’s the lesson Alice teaches us.

Jason