Imagine seeing everything as if for the first time.

We lose something wonderful when it becomes more important to us to be the one who knows than to be the one who’s open to the everyday wonders around us. “Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don’t,” wrote Leo Buscaglia. Fortunately, our sense of curiosity and wonder can be rekindled and refreshed.

Artists and photographers are taught to observe the world through the eyes of a child. “Every child is an artist,” said Pablo Picasso. “The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

Inventors and product developers are taught to see things as an amateur would, rather than as an expert. An expert looks at two spoons and sees two spoons; an amateur looks at two spoons and sees a musical instrument.

Zen practitioners are taught to approach every moment of life with a “beginners mind.” As Abbess Zenkei Blanche Hartman says, this is a “mind innocent of preconceptions and expectations, judgements and prejudices.” It’s a mind full of curiosity, wonder, and amazement. The beginners mind revels in being naïve and not knowing.

Know nothing. Appreciate everything.