Find a tree in your neighbourhood. Every day for a week or more, spend a few minutes with it. Try not to think of it in terms of its taxonomy, as an ‘oak’ or a ‘birch’. Think of it as that particular tree, as you would do with a friend. How tall is it? Notice its bark, its roots, its leaves, the insects and other animals living on it. Listen to it every day: put your ear against its trunk, and listen for at least a minute to the noises coming from within.
By the end of the week (or longer, if you need it), you should have come to consider that tree as an individual being. Did this happen? If not, why?
Make notes in your Book of Wonder.
For a week, make an effort to notice the wildlife that you can find in unlikely places in your neighbourhood: flowers blooming from cracks in the asphalt, squirrels living close to a station. Make notes in your Book of Wonder about the wildlife surrounding you where you live.
Over the course of a week, make a note of the feelings and sensations you experience and of the colours you perceive during your commute to work. Record the spots that awaken memories, and those that make you dream about the future.
Then write in your Book of Wonder a story map of your commute to work. In the example I gave in the chapter, the primary school close to my house became ‘the spot where children meet to learn about their future’. Think of each step as an element of a quest, a part of a larger story, and describe it accordingly.
Finally, the next time you go to work, keep that story in mind, looking at your commute through its lens.
What does it change? Make a note in your Book of Wonder.
This is not a real exercise; rather, it is a habit that you might want to get into. Every time you are planning an outdoor walk, decide in advance a small number of photographs that you will be allowed to take (for a four-hour walk, two will be plenty), and then stick strictly to that number. This will help you to engage with the world outside with one less filter between the world and yourself.