The blog will pick a word of the week, to share & explore the selected word. Here’s an expression for the word – surprise.
Surprise. It can delight, disrupt or enlighten. “The moments of happiness we enjoy, usually take us by surprise” – Ashley Montagu. How we appreciate it reveals what we value or what we can create. Surprise shares that the world is not as fixed as we assume, that new possibilities can erupt at any moment. It’s a necessary condition for reflective awareness, that alternative ways of being exist beyond one’s current view of the world or oneself.
Perhaps, the safest prediction we can make about the future, is that it will surprise us. “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the surprising & the mysterious. It is the source of all true art & science” – Albert Einstein. Most of our life is lived through unconscious prediction. A surprise shows us where those assumptions break. That break is precious. The best things in life are unexpected surprises, because there were no expectations.
Surprise reveals new potential & fresh opportunities to explore, discover or create. Learning doesn’t happen when our world behaves exactly as we expected, it happens when it doesn’t. A surprise throws us into full focus for a moment. Being present in the moment brings peace & joy. It puts everything into perspective.
Surprise re-introduces freedom. It says, there are paths we may have not imagined, yet. “Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That & surprise” – Julia Cameron. Our days are like a house that we know best. Surprise is the wind that blows a window open to let in a view that we didn’t know existed. “Each day holds a surprise. When we listen, we can see, hear or feel it when it comes” – Henri Nouwen.
“Life is full of unpredictable beauty & strange surprises” – Mark Everett. “Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us” – Boris Pasternak. The only thing that should surprise us, is that there are still some things that can surprise us!