Say WOW

Reading from Tuesday and Wednesday, October 8 and 9, 2013 yoga classes

More from the fabulously, wonderful book ever:  "Life is a verb"  by Patti Digh

When her daughter Tess, was a toddler everytime she would see a bus, she would say WOW!!!  A BUS!!! saying it with every fiber of her being.  She goes on to say that Tess gets excited about BIG RED FIRE TRUCKS, and TUNNELS and the ICE CREAM TRUCK.  Everytime she sees a bus, she says WOW, even if it was 2 minutes ago.  And I quote from the book.

"Being around her is like getting a PhD in exuberance...  I once read of a man who went to a kindergarten class and asked how many of the kids could sing?--every hand shot up immediately.  How many could dance? Same response.  How many could paint? Again, all hands shot up eagerly.  He then went into a college classroom and asked the same questions.  Did he get the same response? No. No hands went up.  What happens in those years between five and eighteen to our sense of joy and possibility and personal command of the universe?

We learn to mask ourselves, our surprise and our glee, our sense of self-worth and self-loathing:  Don't say you can paint, because someone else might paint better than you do and people will judge.  Don't say you can sing, because you're no Johnny Cash.  Don't say you can write if you're not on the New York Times best-seller list.  Don't express your sheer wonder at the sight of a bus--that would mark you as unsophisticated and naive.  We don't often allow ourselves to be surprised as adults.  Our unwillingness or inability to be wowed is exactly the problem--we equate being surprised with being unprepared and naive.

I would love to meet this lady, Patti Digh, and tell her... WOW... I love your book.