People Who Are Wonder-Full

One stormy evening in September, more than 300 people gathered in an old Vermont town hall to celebrate the life and legacy of one of the most wonder-full and courageous people one could ever meet.  And I do mean Wonder-Full. With this man, almost every day was a wonder, every person he saw was a wonder, everything he heard was a wonder, every problem a wonder,.. All of it just waiting to be revealed. 

He greeted every person as if they were the most important person he’d seen all day. He moved through his day with a radiant bounce. 

My friend looked at almost everyone with shining eyes, full of possibility, and almost everyone looked back at him that same way.

There was no room for the petty or trivial in his way of living. He threw himself into every moment and took others along for a wonder-full ride. 

WHAT IF THE WORTH OF EACH OF OUR LIVES WAS MEASURED IN THE NUMBER OF SMILES THAT WOULD BREAK OUT AT THE MERE MENTION OF OUR NAME? 

In that tally, Dr. Barrett Peterson’s name would be hard to beat. 

As sad as we all were at his memorial ceremony - he passed at age 58, after battling a rare cancer -  there were countless smiles that evening as we all swapped wonder-full Barrett stories.

Then, that night we went home and tried to make sense of it all. 

Here’s a quote that summed up that evening: 

Nothing that happens has any meaning until we decide how it changes who we are and how we live. 

- Richard Bach // Jonathan Livingston Seagull

With the rest of my comments, I’d like to ponder that quote, because people like this - the Wonder-full Ones - teach us all how to live the rest of our own day's much better, no matter the count.

When these “Wonder-full Ones” pass too early, more people will live with a greater measure of truly joyful exuberance the rest of their days. Because of them, more roses will be smelled, more moments with family savored, more sunsets and northern lights celebrated for the wonders they truly are. 

When the Wonder-full Ones pass, I suspect that more vacations are taken, more petty arguments are avoided, more people help each other with projects, and there are more occasions when "the other cheek is turned". 

The Wonder-full Ones remind us to laugh harder at our own foibles and focus less on the flaws in others. Their memory strikes a new chord of generosity in us and most inspiringly, the Wonder-full ones leave us with the urge to spring out of our own routines to help someone else. 

Masters of those better angels - the Wonder-full Ones - have walked among us all then gone somehow. And when they pass, they seem to squared their shoulders and walk through that door to whatever is next with a legacy that feels like a comet’s tail.

If one person, with whatever time they had, can leave us with all those remarkably good impulses, then it was a great life and they have changed the future immeasurably.

Not a bad go around on this spinning blue ball! When one considers all that in the scope of eternity, the Wonder-full Ones leave legacies that could change everything as they spiral outward. 

Hmmm… I'm pausing to imagine a world where my friend Barrett’s example was the norm. 

Maybe that's the world the Wonder-full Ones will find on the other side of that door they walked through? 

Maybe we all walk this earth for a time - always too short to accomplish all we want - and then the world we step into is the one where our best selves are realized. 

THE WONDER-FULL ONES CHANGE WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE LIVE IF WE LET THEM, AND IN SO DOING, THEY WILL ALWAYS BE WALKING BESIDE US. 

We can catch glimpses of them constantly, in the gestures, voices, and faces of really kind people we run into; the people who always seem to see the bright side and find possibility in the most challenging situations. 

And we can draw a wry smile in funny and challenging situations, when we know exactly what these Wonder-full Ones would say or do. 

Let’s do that more often. Instead of following our impulses over a cliff (as we all tend to do too frequently) let’s make sure the memory of these wonder-full people takes us on journeys every day that we could not have gone on without them. 

BE WONDER-FULL FOR OTHERS.

[This is an adaptation of the eulogy I gave for my husband’s best friend  whose birthday was yesterday. His memorial service was in a 150 year old, classic Vermont Grange (like a church but used as a town meeting hall.)  300+ people packed into the hall that should have held only 200. And that night an east wind was howling outside,.. Vermont never gets an east wind.  Occasionally, while I was speaking, the windows would suddenly rattle like they were almost to burst, the whole building shuddered, or the lights would flicker. The Wonder-Full Ones have their ways of staying right beside us,.. don’t they?]