Sonder…

I often stare aimlessly when I’m a passenger in a car, looking at peoples houses, wondering who lives there. What the house is like inside, what its occupants are like.

I look at people in a crowd. Watch them in a cafe, I’m especially fascinated by people sitting alone, writing. I want to know what they are writing about, I imagine they are penning a love letter, or a journal entry, describing in detail moments they want to capture. There is something so other worldly about that scene. It takes me on impromptu little journeys of possibility.

I imagine if it were me what I might write in a quaint little cafe sipping English breakfast tea. I wonder if they are as complicated, as I am.  If they are happy, sad, carefree. If they live close by, are the in town for a meeting, or holidaying. The possibilities are endless.

Imagine looking at an apartment block, when it’s dark, the many windows, some pitch black, others different shades of light. The windows alone give a little introduction into its inhabitants.

So many scenarios of what might be going on inside each apartment. Some of which would feel familiar, comfortable even. Others so far out of our comfort zone, that they are not even a consideration.

These thoughts have always been with me. So when I stumbled across the word sonder a few years ago I was delighted to know that there was an actual word that  captured all those thoughts.

I think it might be my favourite word. It’s hauntingly beautiful.  It holds so much, emotion, in fact every emotion, and I love that with just the change of one letter the word becomes wonder.

Footnote….

24th August 2024

26th August 2024

16th December 2024

30th May 2025