Enjoy everything!

“Enjoy everything!” That’s the tagline of the manga series Yotsuba&! written and drawn by Kiyohiko Azuma. The manga is widely popular for a good reason. It follows the daily life of five-year-old Yotsuba.

Strangely, I found this series to show something incredibly important while having no consistent plot. Yotsuba’s genuine curiosity for the things around her stands out. This is made even more obvious by contrast with the relaxed, mellow nature of her father.

I relate a lot to her (intense) reactions to everyday objects. When I see something cool or peculiar, I’ll point it out. For example, giant objects, funky bugs, and silly cars are subject to my fascination. Yeah, and I’ll kick my feet and point at an NA Miata, even if I’m alone. I’m not exactly sure what drives this kind of fascination, but I think it has to do with wonder and hope.

The hope that there is something greater, better, and meaningful. That despite the fact that life might get harder, there’s something that’ll help us get through it. That we’ll learn something new, and we might be able to relate to each other better—a connection to others or to the physical world. And when I look back at an event, I often come to note how harmonious life is despite how chaotic it might feel in the moment.

I never really understood what people meant by to be “in the present” until I realized that it meant to be engaged with something in front of you. Curiosity drives that engagement, and Yotsuba shows it so viscerally. To me, being present means to be curious.

Curiosity doesn’t always look like asking questions. It is a posture of the heart. To inquire rather than judge. To observe rather than ignore. To focus on the subject rather than yourself. It neglects the past and the future. (Though curiosity tends to lead to questions about the future.)

It’s important to retain that kind of curiosity. Not only is it at the root of innovation, but it is part of the foundation from which actions are exercised. Sometimes—often, actually—it’s hard to start or learn something new. In fact, it usually takes a considerable amount of effort to focus on something worthwhile. I find that curiosity might not occur first; rather, you do something you ought to do and curiosity arises from it. Perhaps that’s what actually separates adults from children. Children are more reactionary by responding to their natural curiosities, but adults are aware of what could or might be good for them, and so by taking action (even if it’s hard), they may end up curious about what’s next.

Perhaps one of the biggest upsides to curiosity is the resulting enjoyment. The kind of physical reaction that Yotsuba and I experience is joy. Joy seems to be the byproduct of the process of curiosity itself, and better yet, it isn’t even necessarily earned. As in, you don’t need to complete something to experience it. It happens as part of the process.