Unless you become like a child, you shall never enter the kingdom of heaven.
- Jesus
As the bumper sticker wisdom goes, "All who wander are not lost." True, that. But there are a few of us who could use a GPS. By the same token, all who wonder are not clueless. Or lost. Unless, of course, you're lost in wonder.
To be sure, wonderers are often the wanderers. Wondering about almost anything can get you wandering. Get you off the beaten path. Get you into a neck of the woods you never knew existed. It can lead you to astonishing discoveries. Can open you to new horizons. And... can also get you lost.
Kids are wonderful wonderers. And wanderers. Kids can wonder about almost anything: What makes the sky blue? Does Santa Claus live with the tooth fairy? If you dig in the backyard deep enough, will you reach China? If you wish and pray hard enough, will you get a pony? And... why did anyone ever think eating Brussels sprouts was a good idea?
The good thing about wondering is that it opens you up and keeps you from closing down. Wondering enables you to see things you never might never have seen, hear things you might never have heard. Wondering jump-starts the creativity gene and keeps your brain asking, "What if?"
Of course, wondering almost always gets you wandering. And even lost. But if you're lost in wonder, are you really lost? Best, perhaps, to simply wander on.