May You Never Lose Your Wonder
Life as Leela: A Return to Play
All your life is a work of art.
A painting is not a painting but the way you live each day.
A song is not a song but the words you share with the people you love.
— Patricia Engel, “It’s Not Love, It’s Just Paris”
I remember when my life was full of wonder.
Even though I grew up surrounded by violence—in a nation marked by war—there was still a strange lightness in life. A quiet purity. A constant anticipation of something beautiful.
Fast forward…
I moved to the United States. I was an international student, thrown into a new world of uncertainty. And yet, somehow, that same lightness lingered. Not as close as before, but still present—hovering nearby.
Fast forward again…
Years passed. Life happened—abrupt, unexpected changes. One day, I took stock of everything. And I realized: the lightness was gone.
What was once familiar had become faint. A speck in the rearview. That sense of ease, that quiet joy, had been drowned by the noise of everyday life.
Life had become… serious. Detached.
That’s when it hit me:
I had forgotten how to play.
I had lost my wonder.
So began a different kind of quest. A return.
To make art of my life.
To reclaim that sense of wonder.
To become intimate again with the ease I once knew.
In the tantric tradition, the entire cosmos is born of Leela (लीला)—the Divine’s Creative Play.
This play is the root of all beauty, all joy, all existence.
When you see life as Leela, everything becomes art.
And wonder isn’t something you chase—it’s something you live.
You don’t just survive.
You don’t just push through.
You play. You create. You exist for the wonder of it all.
So, friends:
Make art with your life.
Don’t forget to play.
And above all—
May you never lose your Wonder.