bikehikebabe sent me this picture from the internet. It reminds us that everyday life can be an adventure if we just keep our sense of curiosity. What are you curious about? What new things are you learning?
A Week of Adventure
The past week has been adventuresome for me. I had three chances to slip into sacred space.
- Overload
Conrad at Levered Intelligence (a conversational blog that always raises my spirits) wrote that he was temporarily loaded with work, so I drew a cartoon based on one of my favorite jokes:
- I have a plan!
Then a Hagar the Horrible cartoon showed Hagar and Lucky Eddie shackled in a dungeon, and it was time to revive a cartoon I saw years ago. It resonated so deeply that I remembered it all these years. I’ve been wanting to write a future post on the topic, so I finally took the time to draw the picture to go with the caption:
- A Gift From the Driveway
I also wrote a short post for Robert Hruzek’s What I Learned From… monthly writing project. This month we were supposed to take time to look at something deeply and share our experience. So I wrote about two pictures that Torben took last Christmas…every time I look at them they evoke feelings of wonder and awe. They remind me of the magic of being alive:
Sticking to the Mantra
I cheerfully admit, my idea of adventure is a lot different from that of most people. My mantra is
Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love to do and find a way to share it with others.
When I remember to stick to that I don’t have to go looking for adventure, it comes to me. I don’t even have to leave home.
What About You?
What does the word adventure mean to you? Have you ever had one without leaving home? My guess is most readers and commenters on this blog will answer yes. Am I wrong?
Related posts:
A Gift From Our Driveway
This Mystery Called Life
Life As a Shared Adventure
My Brain Is My Favorite Toy
Holy Curiosity
I can’t say that I have ever thought of taking the camera into the shower just in case a cat dropped in for a drink! 🙂
Great post! Your definition of adventure is spot on. When our eyes are open we see opportunity for adventure at every turn. Some of my best adventures have taken place without leaving my mind, let alone my home. When I do leave, which is quite often, adventure comes in many flavors. New cities, new experiences, each allowing me to take away so much more than what I came with.
May you always keep your joyful spirit.
Namaste
Rogers last blog post..Most of the Worst Things That Ever Happened to Me, Never Happened
Roger, HazelMarie made the comment in your blog (above): “Life is so very hard.” Wrong attitude. Think “Life is easy” & it will be. Worrying is hard.
One adventure I do is take a large T-shirt, lay it on the floor, cut off the sleeves, take up the sides, make sleeves smaller, reshape armholes, put sleeves back in. Add it to my vast wardrobe that I’ll probably never get around to wearing.
I agree that we usually make our lives harder with our attitudes. This is not to say that times cannot be difficult. The attitude with which we approach our challenges can make a huge difference.
Yours is a great example of how adventure can be found in simple pleasures. Anything that creates a challenge rewards us.
Rogers last blog post..Most of the Worst Things That Ever Happened to Me, Never Happened
a couple of years ago, we had an adventure in the house, that I was reminded of by the cat on the shower rail!
one night as we sitting watchin TV we heard this god awful crash in the bathroom and we run there to find that the rail along with curtain and a multitude of other things hanging on it were lopsided in the bath…..
what we discovered when we were looking for ‘attachments’ was that the landlord obviously had no screws when he put it up! He had used something that wouldn’t normally hold up a metal rail of this size….
BLUE TACK (I guess you have the stuff in your neck of the woods) Yep both end secured to the bathroom tiles with the stuff. So how did we fix it – MORE BLUE TACK! It’s not happened again but I guess it will.
So you see I hope that no cat decides to take a drink our shower room as he/she may get more than they bargained for a ‘full on, fall in to the shower area….”
Ah, now the exchange of comments on Conrad’s blog makes sense! I did not know that you could draw. These are great cartoons. My compliments to you.
“An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” I cannot improve on G K Chesterton can I?
I have just had a fantastic adventure with a magazine editor. I subscribe to the magazine which has not been reaching me by the normal method and on my complaint, replacement copies have been sent on the last four occasions. I finally emailed him and asked him point blank, if there was a problem with their system and whether he would like to share the problem with me, as I may perhaps be able to suggest a solution. This apparently galvanized him and a few others to look at their system, and also come clean with the fact, that I was not the only one complaining. The subscription dept was not taking action on the complaints received other than sending replacement copies, and my last email finally got them to look at their system. Horror of horrors, they found the problem immediately and came back to me and took my advise. I have just heard from the editor, that the advise given by me has been implemented and the glitch hopefully removed. After a decade, the knowledge of a life time of customer satisfaction, came back to the fore and I had a wonderful time grappling with, and coming up with a solution. I am naturally, pleased as punch.
rummusers last blog post..Reaching Out.
Great picture! Love the cartoons as well. That picture really does scream “Stay curious!” I loved reading your post – yes, staying cheerful, positive and open! How very Zen – especially in keeping with the beginners mind. Every moment is an adventure and while its fun for me to go “out” to have more adventures, I don’t feel it necessary.
I grew up with a chronically depressed mom, always frowning, worrying, fretting. I spent my entire childhood trying to cheer her up! It was exhausting and also robbed me of the childhood experience most have – so I am doing my childhood NOW, and find I’m happier for it!
Jean, you’re such a kick! Just knowing you and exchanging who-knows-what is an adventure. What a great attitude you have.
I knew you took pride in your craftsmanship on the blog. What I didn’t realize is just how good you are as an artist! These are great!
I really look forward to years of sharing curiosity with you.
Notice how CommentLuv slips a gear every so often?
I love the cartoons. I agree with adventures at home and even vacations at home. The grass always looks greener and even lush on the other side.
Roger,
“Some of my best adventures have taken place without leaving my mind, let alone my home.” Amen to that! It sounds as if you have a joyful spirit too. 🙂
bikehikebabe,
Your comment illustrates that our feeling of satisfaction is often the joy of creating, not on using the end result.
Cathy,
We have a shower rod similar to yours. Ours isn’t fastened to the wall, we have to adjust the ends so it’s the right length to fit tightly. Every once in a while it crashes. We, too, rent.
rummuser,
Thanks for sharing your adventure. That’s the kind that resonates with me. There’s nothing like using our talents and skills for a good cause. Solving problems like that is always a heady experience.
SuZen,
My mom was depressed when I was a kid, too. I still remember that intense feeling of wanting her to be happy. My dad was an alcoholic who was often fun to be around when we were little. So my mission in life became learning to have his moments of joy without turning to alcohol or drugs. And to figure out some way of sharing that knowledge with other people.
I still remember being lonely and bored out of my mind one summer when I was about 10 years old. My dad told me childhood was the happiest time of my life, enjoy it while I could. When I grew up there would be nothing but responsibility. I decided I was never going to grow up and never did. Oh, I’ve pretended to be a professional when that was necessary, but it was really all a game.
Conrad,
Nope, I’m no artist, just a patient craftsman. It take me hours and HOURS to draw a cartoon, but I learn a lot in the process and I get completely absorbed in the process rather than pushing for the end result.
My best friend in the first grade had artistic talent. Whenever we were given time to draw he would come up with great pictures, completely from the vision in his head. I still remember a picture of a cat sitting on a couch. I just wished I could do something like that. Instead I never knew what to draw, so I would try to draw whatever he had drawn the week before. Once it was a picture of the head of a horse. I was pleased. It looked like a horse to me. Then the teacher asked me if it was a giraffe and teased me about the long neck.
It all seemed hopeless until I went to a wedding once. The next time we had to draw a picture I did a simple picture of a bride…a round head with a veil and a triangle for the body. Then all I needed was two arms sticking out in front holding a bouquet of flowers. The teacher loved it. So from then on she always got a picture of a bride. She told my mother I must have been really impressed by that wedding. No, it was just an effective strategy for avoiding humiliation. 🙂
I don’t understand how CommentLuv works. I agree sometimes it gets the wrong post, sometimes it doesn’t find any.
Conrad’s last two posts: Pictures That I Just Found Funny and (one of my favorites, an easy and fun read about motivation) Why I Cleaned the Garage Today.
Tess,
Thanks. I agree about adventures and vacations at home. I was lucky enough to do a lot of traveling when I was younger, so I don’t believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. When I want more vibrant plants I cultivate my own garden. 😉
Roger,
I’ve been thinking of what you wrote about having a camera inside the shower. One suspects the cat has done this more than once. 😉
Hi Jean,
I have to agree. 🙂
Rogers last blog post..Most of the Worst Things That Ever Happened to Me, Never Happened
My adventures are in the world of ideas – not just in the house, but in my head (it’s hard to get more local than that).
They are usually about what it would mean to apply the ideas. I recommend this path of adventure, stimulating, challenging and satisfying.
Evans last blog post..Specific Desires
Evan,
I have a rich inner life too. I agree, I wouldn’t change it for anything.
I share pretty much the same ideas to the meaning of adventure. To me, it is about keeping an open mind. I have noticed that in the past, I can come up with a lot of resistance in learning something new. My challenge is to be aware of these thoughts and to set them aside. This allows me to explore freely and without limitations.
Evelyn Lims last blog post..My Personal Creed
Evelyn,
I agree that awareness is crucial. Also for me it’s important to accept the feelings and not try to force them to change. Usually if I look deeply at what’s going on the issue resolves itself.
Jean, adventure s a state of mind. Awareness determines your dimension of presence in the now. This has nothing to do with human perceived time and space. You sense new experience.
Liara,
It sounds as if your view is similar to my “slipping into sacred space.”
this picture really makes me laugh. thanks for sharing this.
what an adventurous week! thanks for showing these pics of how much fun things can be right under our noses.
Carriage Clocks,
Glad you liked it. 😉