The other day Pierre was fascinated with a garden lizard. Initially, I was worried he was going to hurt it but as I watched him wagging his tail at this new friend, I realised his curiosity had been aroused and he was excited to meet this new creature.
In fact, Pierre adores all animals, including us humans. When we go for our daily walk, it is without fail that someone will smile in response to his confident strut, or they’ll stop to ask questions about him. It’s a comical experience to connect with others who leave knowing your dog’s name but have no interest in yours.
Interestingly, he regularly attracts curiosity. I think this stems from Pierre’s perpetual look of wonder at every new experience he encounters.
We humans also bring this wonderful innocence and curiosity into the world which essentially drives our learning. Perhaps you can recall noticing a baby’s wide-eyed curious look during an encounter with something new. For a growing infant, every new sound, sight, taste, smell or touch is a new experience to absorb and process. They are constantly filtering these new experiences and often, in turn, have an emotional response, albeit positive or less so.
Unfortunately, we know that with age, this curiosity usually fades. We become less in awe and wonder of the world and more attached to certainty and knowing. In some ways this is helpful because, as adults, we need to be able to function with a degree of certainty and knowing. It would be very difficult traversing the work place in a constant state of wonder.
However, just like throwing the baby out with the bathwater, we don’t need to completely lose our sense of curiosity. In fact, it’s one of those skills that can come in handy as adults. Counsellors are trained to use curiosity in their interactions, to ask questions of a client with genuine interest. This is largely because curiosity allows us to explore, to discover and to create understanding. If we think we ‘know’ then we’ve closed the door to these gifts.
So thanks to Pierre, I’m reminded that I need to keep opening the door beyond my current reality of ‘knowing’ and allow curiosity to emerge more within my life. Perhaps I can use curiosity to strengthen my relationships. Next time I meet with friends, I can ask more questions instead of doing the usual tag team of exchanging information. I’m sure they’ll enjoy being interesting and I might even discover something new about them.
…Or next time I find myself in a conflict situation, I could use curiosity to examine and resolve differences, instead of my usual defensive or offended stance. Asking questions to gain an understanding of the other person’s perspective might be useful, and who knows, we might even find some common ground if I keep an open mind!
…Or maybe next time I have an emotional reaction to something or someone, I can step back, observe the emotion as a sensation in my body, be curious around what triggered it, how long it lasts and notice if I can let it pass without needing to act. The opportunity to respond to an emotion versus autopilot reacting to the situation or those around me. That will be a good one to try when I’m driving in peak hour traffic!
So let’s take a leaf out of Pierre’s book and see what curiosities await us in this strange yet interesting world we live in.
Adieu for now.
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