Adventure!

This is a statue in the park down the street from my house.

Lincoln Park, Greeley, CO

I love the look of determination and hope on their faces.  They are on an adventure.  Pioneers may not have thought of it in those terms, but striking out for a new land to carve out a new way of life is undoubtedly an adventure. 

I should know.  That is exactly what my family and I did a year and a half ago.  We left what we had known to be home for nearly 20 years and replanted ourselves in an entirely new place.  We said goodbye to the beautiful Catskills of the Hudson Valley in New York and said hello to the stunning Rockies of the Front Range of Colorado. 

Granted we weren’t exactly on par with the pioneers.  Our covered wagon was a Penske truck (we dubbed it Big Yellow Bird) and we didn’t have to get out and push in order to ford any rivers – not even once! 

Big Yellow Bird, my kids, their friends, and everything we own!

We encountered neither hostile peoples nor animals.  So it is nearly untruthful and certainly unfair to draw comparison between our voyage west and that of those brave pioneers who encountered and overcame such remarkable challenges. 

Yet ours was an adventure nonetheless.  At least that’s how I chose to see it.  I think a sense of adventure is a perspective I choose to take.  Adopting a sense of adventure allows me to see what is unknown and scary with eyes of determination and hope.  There is a certain excitement when you are “on an adventure” and certain satisfaction at its conclusion. 

And I see adventure everywhere!  My faith is an adventure, marriage is an adventure, motherhood is an adventure, even laundry is an adventure!  When I got the itch to start a blog, I knew this is what it would be about.  I knew I wanted to explore and share the adventure of everyday life. 

 There is beauty and adventure in the commonplace

for those with eyes to see beyond.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

So here I am, starting another adventure – a put-your-thoughts-out-there-and-see-what-happens adventure.  And, hey! if I can encourage just one person to see the adventures unfolding around them it will be worth the effort.

 

 Adventure (n) an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks;

an exciting or remarkable experience

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adventure

What adventure are you embracing today?