Excerpts from The Wild Why: Stories and Teachings To Uncover Your Wonder
What is wonder? In her new book, The Wild Why, Laura Munson invites you to answer the most powerful and wonder-ful question..."What can I create?"
Today is Book Tour eve and I am gathering my talking points to take The Wild Why: Stories and Teachings to Uncover Your Wonder on the road! It’s one thing to write a book, and it takes me a long time to truly surrender to what a book wants to be. I started this book as a way to illuminate what gets in the way of our true self-expression, and many drafts later, it became about wonder. And mostly about how to let awe into our lives. An awe we dearly need that too many of us have abandoned. So I’ve been in the pages of the book a lot lately as a reader, learning from it. It’s a beautiful, full-circle, experience and I want to share with you some of the passages that are landing in my heart. I hope they land in yours. The author Chris Dombrowski calls The Wild Why “a workbook for the soul.” That’s what it feels like to me, though I never set out to write that book. I hope that I’ll see you on the road, and either way: I hope that this book will help you, feel like a friend, hold your soul, and bring you into your wonder in this worried world.
What is wonder?
p. 18
Wonder is curiosity and awe put together. And it’s looking for one thing: truth. And Truth is looking for its voice. And creative self-expression is that voice. And storytelling is your way to it all. Our life is a story made up of smaller stories. Scenes. We live our life in scenes that become our stories. It’s up to you to find the true ones and to disregard the false ones. Think of it like that and you’ll find your way.
p. 39
Wonder is at the root of a functional society. It’s empathy. It’s sameness. It’s seeing me in you and you in me. If you have ever looked at our world and thought: ‘How can I help?’ there’s your answer. It’s wondering about our world and the people in it. It’s valuing connection versus division. We simply have to be connected to our world, starting in our own community, and be invested in it. Not sequester ourselves away and stare at screens in a form of fake connection.
What are the stakes if we lose our wonder?
p. 40
Have you lost your wonder? Do you understand that your future depends on you finding it again? And maybe even the future of the world?
p. 44
What if wonder is as important as sleeping and eating and drinking water? What if wonder is how we survive? And if so, what happens if we start to kill our wonder? Who do we become? And where do we find ourselves later in life? Looking for our “voices?” Feeling “stuck?” Tossing and turning in a torturous night haunt? Going on pilgrimages when all the answers are already in you?
p. 91
Your wonder is all around you. It’s in your dreams. The big ones and little ones and dashed ones and yet-to-be-dreamed ones. Wonder is what allows you to co-create with yourself. And to find your truth. That’s where it begins and ends if it’s going to go anywhere at all. You have to start there. With you. With your questions and wonder and your absolute quest for truth. That is what is behind EVERYTHING.
What does the phrase find your voice really mean?
p. 30
I’m here with a promise: it’s actually not possible for anyone to talk the way you can talk, or cry the way you cry, or laugh the way you laugh, or question the way you question. So no matter how foolish or unsteady or fraudulent or unimpressive you feel when you express yourself, know that you are putting a unique form of word-wonder into the world that is ultimately unscrutinizable because it is impossible to reproduce. That, in and of itself, is a large part of the miracle that is your self-expression. But that doesn’t mean it’s not scary.
p. 40
If you’re reading this book, there’s a strong likelihood that you long to “find your voice.” Which is to say that you feel “stuck” in your self-expression. But the truth is that you don’t need to “find your voice.” You just need to remember it.
How can I claim my voice?
p. 16
Creativity is just the voice of Truth. Truth’s voice. And if Truth can have a voice…so can you. And Truth is very very curious. And very very full of awe. Truth wants its wonder. Needs it. Which means you do, too.
p. 111
Whatever is your personal history when it comes to self-expression, you’re running the show. You. Not anyone else. You are generating the thoughts and beliefs and stories that define the way you live your life. And that’s good news.
p. 120
That mean voice inside us is in fact just a scared child. And remember: she was brave before she was scared.
p. 221
If you knew how to express what you really want to express, in every single situation that you face, and it was easy enough, how would that change your life? How would that change who you are? And I don’t just mean by writing or speaking. I mean by thinking. Acting. Being. All of it is self-expression. The question is: are you being true, or are you being un-true? And if so, why?
Wonder is easy. You just have to know where to look.
p. 177
Wonder can be very small. It probably should be very small. Something you can access right where you are.
p. 185
All this to say: you can memorize all those steps and tips and tricks and talking points. But I know this to be true: they wear off. And the guru that delivers them does too. Their luster fades.
p. 191
Just look for regular pebbles. Wonder loves its regular pebbles. Wonder loves its wonderer to wander the forest floor, slowly, looking, allowing.
p. 178
“I know that it is easy. You just have to stop…and wonder. Then you can create. And then what you create can turn into something huge.” He smiled. “But start…right where you are.”
Build a bridge to yourself first.
p. 220
I’ve been talking about bridging to yourself and others by finding your truth and expressing it in the way that only you can. Because how are we ever to build the bridge to others if we haven’t built that bridge to ourselves. That is the place to start. It doesn’t go the other way and too many people have that all wrong.
p. 274
I want to learn what my intuition already seems to know. To finally give myself…to myself.
AND if you want your wonder back this June, I have a few spots left on both of my June Haven Writing Retreats in Montana. Montana is the best wonder-maker I know!
June 11-15 & June 18-22
Email me to set up an introductory phone call: info@lauramunson.com
