Adventure. The very word excites my two year old and using it in conjunction with just about any planned or unplanned action is enough to make his contrary attitude disappear. He gets that from his mother.
When I was fourteen my family of nine moved across the country to the boondocks of Kentucky. My parents had purchased a farm and a mobile home which was to be moved onto the property, but winter weather made moving the trailer impossible. We rented an old house for what we thought would be a few weeks. It turned into five months.
Five months:
• without a refrigerator, washer or drier connections, a stove, or central heat.
• of cooking and heating with a wood cookstove, waking up to frost on the walls, and freeze drying our laundry on a clothesline.
• of using the back porch for a refrigerator and being one of nine to share a single bathroom with a five gallon hot water heater.
Those were the most exciting five months of my life.
I believe there are two ways that people view life. Either life happens to them and they feel inconvenienced by it, or they make life happen and feel empowered because of it. I’m the later.
The single most important lesson I have learned, when it comes to adventure, is that one must first learn to be content. Not complacent. Content; ok with who and where we are in life. On then are we free to seek adventure and when we find it, feel confident taking it on.
Unlike most people, I love to move. Whether it’s across town, or halfway across the country, I love the challenges moving brings… Of course, moving isn’t something I can do every day, but it’s an example of one of the bigger adventures in life that many people view as a burden, or even a loss.
Smaller, every day examples are waking up to find out the roads are icy and you’re snowed in, discovering your toddler has learned a bad word and deciding how to deal with it, or chasing the dog down the street in your pajamas ’cause he doesn’t have the decency to escape when you’re dressed and looking your best.
Life happens. Adventures await!
“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” – Helen Keller
Post by: Erica Mueller. Erica Mueller is a wife and mother by day, and geek blogger and designer by night. On weekends she enjoys canoeing, hiking, photography, and gardening. She can be found tech-talking at EricaSays.com and on Twitter as @EricaMueller
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