Sense of Wonder – Where’s Yours?

On Saturday, I led a small group of Texas Master Naturalists on a seed collecting and nature outing at Tahoka Lake Pasture, in Lynn County, Texas.

While the Master Naturalists program is a good program it lacks one major thing – actually connecting people to nature and their sense of wonder that nature can instill in us. By this I mean a sense of discovery of why things are the way they are and how they adapted in this natural world.

My example on this lack of sense of wonder on this teaching day was picking a horsemint or lemon beebalm stalk. I asked all of the Master Naturalists present to twirl the stem in their fingers. Down the line it went. Them twirling. Me asking what they felt. I even went as far as asking them to close their eyes and tell me what they were feeling when they twirled the stem back and forth between their fingers. I even watched intently giving encouraging words as one lady twirled the stem still not sensing what I was trying to get them to sense.

None of them got it, until…

It finally took one the person that I didn’t think would get it – got it. As soon as he twirled the stem between his fingers a few times he said, “It’s square.” High fives were given to my long-time friend Henry. He caught the sense of wonder.

Then the others passed the horsemint around again and then they connected to it. They linked to the sense of wonder I was trying to teach. I explained that our ancestors learned this simple trick that a squared stem in nature means it is in the mint family. If our ancestors had lost their sense of smell they could always feel the square stem and know it was a mint. Even if they had lost their sight, they could still know by the feel that what they were holding was a mint-based plant because of their squared stems.

Connecting people to these nature wonders is vital. Connecting kids to nature is even more essential. Texas Master Naturalists are missing being taught this sense of wonder. The wonder of why. The wonder of asking questions. The wonder of making them think outside of books. The wonder of just being in the presence of nature.

How can I say this? I have worked with Master Naturalists for the last ten years. Some got the sense of wonder. In others their sense of wonder was lacking because earning their volunteer hours were more important than wondering why a horsemint has squared stems.

People need to get back to their sense of wonder. They need to ask questions. They need to silently observe. They need to be present at a sauntering pace to sense nature and everything it offers. Hence my question, where’s your sense of wonder?