Adventure

Today on a mail group I am on someone asked what our definition of adventure was and the ways we were now trying to create adventure in our lives.

The definition of adventure has changed as I go through different periods of my life. When I was young (in my early 20's) I made a promise to myself that I would always make decisions about my life based on two questions: First “Is this what God is telling me to do?” and second "If I don't do this will I look back on it when I am OLD and regret not doing this/". It worked well for me through my 20's and 30's and even most of my 40's. I am single, I traveled, I lived a creative life in theatre, and every day, every new creation, every new show, and every new job was an adventure.

Then my youngest brother died suddenly, mom got sick and I moved home to care for her. I had to adjust to life with someone else depending on my presence in their life. I have learned that sometimes adventure is mom remembering my name, or what day it is. Then I got sick with terrible back problems and spent almost 6 months flat on my back, without being able to create anything because of the pain. Adventure became challenging myself to create inside my head and jotting notes down to create it later, finding ways to battle the pain, enjoying watching the squirrel in the squirrel house have babies that spring. Now I am better and I am looking at adventure a whole new way. Getting up every morning to create the next thing, picking juicy ripe tomatoes and seeing mom eat them like candy, and hearing her tell the story for the millionth time about how she and her brother would take the salt shaker to the garden and eat as many tomatoes, hot and juicy from the sun, as they picked-and the smile on her face as she tells me that story (for it is the first time in the telling).

But mostly, as many of you have said, adventure is allowing myself to go outside of my comfort zone. With that definition anything becomes an adventure....taking a different path than the usual on a walk, trying a new restaurant, or recipe, or saying hello to a person you don't know at church, or reading a new book or author you haven't read before. Buying a new type of music, trying a new color in a creation that you normally don’t use, trying a new technique, feeling the sun on your face-and taking the time to notice it. Setting up small challenges each day and meeting them. Starting that business you have been dreaming about for years. Finding new passions and taking steps to live them. Re-connecting with old friends. Making new friends. Deciding that if you are really going to consider yourself an artist to begin to live it and not just think about it…creating every single day, even when you are uninspired. Treating time in your studio as uninterruptible as you would your 9-5 job. Pursuing God with abandon, and stepping out in what he has called you to, without making excuses or listening to reasons why not.

As I have thought about what adventure is in my life these days, I have realize that the definition has changed since my 20's, but the adventures are no less exciting. Maybe they are just more personal and closer to my heart. Maybe it is because they don't make others gasp with the outrageousness of them, or the sheer "envy" factor of them. But for me time actually has challenged me to look closely to the fabric of my life and find the adventure in the gift of life. In many ways adventure in my life is breathtaking and is changing my life even more drastically that those older adventures did. Maybe because they are changing who I am, maybe because they are more centered on pursuing a relationship with God based on truth, honesty and what He thinks about me rather than what I think about me. Just maybe because I am finally learning that God’s adventures for me are so more outrageous than the ones I wanted for myself. (Is. 55:8, Jer. 29:11)

Life is so precious, but at the same time this life isn’t the end either. The greatest adventure is yet to come; Heaven. What an adventure that will be! Live is great, and it should be filled with adventure, I believe that is part of the gift God gives us while we are here on earth. The adventure of living a life for Him, and living the plans he has for us, which, if we listen closely are also the dreams of our heart.

So…adventure. Yes there are great adventures in life that take our breath away and many times make others go “ohhhhhhh”. And there are the small quiet adventures that we may easily miss if we aren’t paying close attention. But they are all adventures. Are you paying attention?