Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello, Wonderseekers!
I have been speaking about The Power of Wonder for a few weeks now, and I am often asked if the book relates to my work in the corporate sphere, and the answer is a resounding yes! So this week it’s all about wonder@work!
Your audio moment of wonder:
Think of this as your mid-week moment of wondrous reflection. Close your eyes, put the phone on silent, and take just two minutes out of your day to be transported. I want your audio wonderbringers! Click here to contribute.
This week our soundscape is based on a story I heard on StoryCorps. For those unfamiliar with it, StoryCorps is a story-gathering initiative started in a booth in New York City’s Grand Central Station in 2003 that now has gathered more than half a million stories with a mission “to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.” Their stories often fill me with a sense of wonder, and Barb Abelhauser’s story of her time as a bridgetender did exactly that.
For 14 years, Barb was an office worker, a job she hated. She finally decided to quit, because quite simply, “I could get hit by a bus tomorrow,” and she didn’t want her last thought to be how much she dreaded going to work.
The role she took next was a bit unexpected. Barb became a bridgetender, spending her days sitting in a small narrow booth called a tenderhouse that overlooked the Ortega River in Jacksonville, Florida. Her job was to open and close the bridge to allow boats to pass from one side to the other, and in from this reflective environment, Barb began recording her musings in a blog called, “The View From a Drawbridge.” She continues to share stories and photographs from her current bridgetending job in Seattle, Washington.
Listen to Barb tell her story about why she loves bridgetending, and then continue to listen for some sounds from a river drawbridge crossing. The way she describes that she is getting paid “to stop and look” is a wonder practice reminder to us all.
Barb’s story of wonder at work
Some wonder@work wonderbringers for me this week:
POV: Your job as an astronuat: Spacewalk outside the International Space Station.
POV: Your job as a marine biologist: A dive on Osprey Reef off the coast of Australia.
And if you want to explore wonder@work in your workplace, you can download w fun workbook here.
Another fun podcast this week, this one filled with references to vegan peanut butter cups and other inanities. Have a listen to The Chris Voss Show. It was a hoot!
If you enjoy your weekly wonderbringer, think about sharing it with a friend. Wonder shared is wonder multiplied!
With wonder,
Let us know what you’d like to see in Wonderbringers.
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