Whatever you believe,

whatever you profess,

whatever you doubt or fear or hope for,

there are some things

your heart cannot deny

when you let go

and let yourself know

the wonder of it all.

—Ralph S. Marston, Jr., The Wonder of It All

When you are a writer, you become very conscious of words you use all the time. Your mind says, no, not again, you can think of something else! but your hand ignores you and writes them out anyway. It keeps you continually proofreading, editing and rereading, usually best done after you sleep on it if you have that much patience.

Then there are words you use a lot and for some reason the proofreading doesn’t work anymore, it’s as if the word is invisible. These are the ones you have to count on other people pointing out to you, and you learn to suffer through those lapses when those invisible words do make print somewhere, visible to everyone else but you. I think that really may be one of these words for me … do you see it anywhere? That one really gets me.

Some words you absolutely adore, but you have a hard time finding a place they fit in. Still, you keep trying, for they are words that deserve to be printed and shared, and you are determined that is exactly what you will do, as soon as you figure out how. As I’ve mentioned in my List of Aloha Virtues, one of those words for me is “grace.”

Then there are words you use a lot and you just don’t care that you do. You love these words, and you have not been able to find other ones to take their place. They simply were meant to be, and as far as you’re concerned they should take center stage as much as possible.

I have Hawaiian ones (Aloha is a pretty obvious one) and English ones. Topping my list, the English word I use all the time and love is “wonderful.”

Wonder and wonderful are beautiful words to me; in my mana‘o (my belief), they are virtuous words because they have a spiritual connection, an ‘of the spirit’ vibrancy. To have wonder, and be wonder full is to be blessed. If someone says something you have done is wonderful, well wow, that is quite a compliment.

Wonder was on my List of Aloha Virtues too:

Wonder. To have an inner capacity that can always make room for awe and wonder is such a blessing. To return to child-like innocence and acceptance, to be rendered speechless, and have it feel good and right, never helpless. To not have all the answers but feel it is perfectly fine not to, to just have wonder.

After he had read our December Ho‘ohana on Faith and Family, Charles Pappas of our Ho‘ohana Community sent me a link to a wonderful presentation called The Wonder of it All. Chuck and I would like to share it with the rest of you on this winter’s Sunday. Froth up an Eggnog Latté and enjoy.

The Wonder of it All.
– this is the presentation link, and
– this is the link to the poem by Ralph S. Marston, Jr.

Mahalo nui loa Chuck.