Something I Have Lost

I had a girlfriend - my first really, truly, meet-the-parents, make plans for our future girlfriend - who once said that her best feature was her "childlike sense of wonder" and that this was something that everyone should have. She was right about that - she definitely had that sense of wonder and it was one of the things about her I loved. At some point I lost my sense of wonder. I'm mostly a cynic, though occasionally I have moments of optimism and hope. I wonder where I lost that sense of wonder. There are still flashes of that wonder. I recall holding each of my girls for the first time. I recall the feeling when they'd fall asleep on me; one of life's truly great moments, and one of the first things kids stop doing as they grow up, sadly. Truly amazing things still make my breath catch. But there is no sense of wonder in the more prosaic. Perhaps that is as it should be, but I do not gawk at sunsets any more. I do not gasp at the sight of a truly beautiful horse galloping. The pedestrian beauty of a pretty stretch of road. All these things seem to pass me by these days. Wonder how I get that back?