{"id":9698,"date":"2026-03-29T20:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=9698"},"modified":"2026-03-29T20:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:48:20","slug":"wonder-and-awe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/?p=9698","title":{"rendered":"Wonder and Awe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-9699\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3.jpg 800w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Riley3-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>People who truly know how to wonder don&#8217;t expend a great deal of energy talking about it; they are off catching snowflakes on hot tongues.  They&#8217;re folding themselves in half to smell the sweet potatoes in the oven just one more time.  I no longer try to convince someone of the delight of soup dumplings; I take them to Dim Sum Garden on Race Street in Philly and let them watch me slurp.  I let the steaming miracle broth run down my face and lap it up in remembrance.<\/p>\n<p>I think awe is an exercise, both a doing and a being.  It is a spiritual muscle of our humanity that we can only keep from atrophying if we exercise it habitually.  I sit in the clearing behind Wisewood listening to the song of the barn swallows mix with the sound of cars speeding by.  I watch the milk current through my tea and the little leaves dance free from their pouch.  I linger in the mirror and I don&#8217;t look away.  I trace the shadows hugging my lips and I don&#8217;t look away.  Awe is not a lens through which to see the world but our sole path to seeing.  Any other lens is not a lens but a veil.  And I&#8217;ve come to believe that our beholding &#8211; seeing the veils of this world peeled back again and again, if only for a moment &#8211; is no small form of salvation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Cole Arthur Riley, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/this_here_flesh.html\">This Here Flesh<\/a><\/em>, p. 31<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Cherry blossoms, South Riding, Virginia, March 24, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People who truly know how to wonder don&#8217;t expend a great deal of energy talking about it; they are off catching snowflakes on hot tongues. They&#8217;re folding themselves in half to smell the sweet potatoes in the oven just one more time. I no longer try to convince someone of the delight of soup dumplings; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beauty","category-joy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9700,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698\/revisions\/9700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/sonderquotes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}