Compelling Faces in Art - Theodore Robinson, By the river, 1887.

Life is an adventure of passion, risk, laughter, beauty, love--and if lucky enough, a burning curiosity. Here we have a girl at river’s edge, spying on ducks. 

When I see her, I think of how the world and everything in it can be new, giving rise to astonishment; to wonder and stand wrapped in awe. Wonder is the desire for knowledge, for something of the marvelous. 

Her face reminds me that amazement awaits us at every corner. 

I am also reminded of the words of Merlin in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King: “Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”