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1.9 - Adventure

A phrase I used to say often was "where's your sense of adventure?!" usually in response to pushback against one of my ideas. Multiple people have affectionately threatened to put it on a T-shirt for me. Gradually though I began to crumble under the weight of being repeatedly outvoted and stopped presenting my ideas since it seemed no one wanted them. And at last I stopped asking myself where my own sense of adventure had gone.

I knew that Helen Keller wrote, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing," but I wasn't familiar with the rest of the quote until I looked that part up: "To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable." I've faced a lot of change, and I've generally done so with denial, whining, or a bulldozer approach. Those haven't proven particularly effective. I am fairly reasonable about changing myself - altering outdated beliefs, and integrating new information. But when the change happens outside and around me I get a bit wobbly. An example would be the first two months of pandemic lockdown last year, during which every creative bone in my body spontaneously turned to jelly because I hadn't planned or prepared for being trapped at home with three small kids, and it's much harder to manage something while it's happening that before it happens.

But to behave like a free spirit in the presence of fate means getting honest about what I can control (my own actions and reactions) and what I cannot (everything else) and directing my efforts accordingly. I'd like to rediscover my sense of adventure. Maybe it will inspire those around me, or maybe not - but my own life will be the better for the wonder in it.

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