adventure

Poem for Today ~ Pirate Story

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Pirate Story

Robert Louis Stevenson

Three of us afloat in the meadow by the swing,   
  Three of us aboard in the basket on the lea.   
Winds are in the air, they are blowing in the spring,   
  And waves are on the meadow like the waves there are at sea.   
   
Where shall we adventure, to-day that we’re afloat,
  Wary of the weather and steering by a star?   
Shall it be to Africa, a-steering of the boat,   
  To Providence, or Babylon, or off to Malabar?   
   
Hi! but here’s a squadron a-rowing on the sea—   
  Cattle on the meadow a-charging with a roar!
Quick, and we’ll escape them, they’re as mad as they can be,   
  The wicket is the harbour and the garden is the shore.

Source

Photo for Today ~ Your Adventure Awaits

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Thinking Out Loud ~ Learning to Walk for the First Time

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Join the Adventure

Today I began reflecting on “Walking,” by Henry David Thoreau. Walking is available online and gutenberg.org under the Harvard Classics.

Thoreau writes, “It is true, we are but faint-hearted crusaders, even the walkers, nowadays, who undertake no persevering, never-ending enterprises.  Our expeditions are but tours, and come round again at evening to the old hearth-side from which we set out.  Half the walk is but retracing our steps.  We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return.  …  If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again—if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man, then you are ready for a walk.” Pg. 233

NOTE: We’ve forgotten the adventure of walking. We plug EarPods into our ears. We talk on our smart phones. We scroll through social media accounts and miss the adventure. Think of what you are missing on your walk adventure. You’re missing meeting other walkers. Maybe you’ve missed out on making a good friend. You’ve missed out on a beautiful sunrise or sunset, or the darkening swirl of storm clouds gathering. Is it time to make walking an adventure again?

Photo for Today

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Thinking Out Loud

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Slay the Dragon

Joseph Campbell speaks about writing in Reflections on the Art of Living. He says, “get the writing out first. Forget the critic and just write. Afterward, you can bring in the critical factor and prune. . . . Do not think about the negative side. There will be negatives that are  going to come down, but you have to hold the door open if you are going to do anything that has not been done before. You have to suspend all criticism to do your work. In writing you have to do this all the time in order to get a sentence out. Suspending criticism is killing the dragon. They’ll shalt kill him. P. 269

Note: It’s true in writing. It’s true in all aspects of our lives. The biggest problem I had in working with students writing their dissertation was to help them move beyond thinking what they were going to write had to be perfect. Once they slayed that dragon, their writing flowed. If we think of the criticisms we’ll receive whether it’s making dinner, posting a blog, or choosing a personal adventure, we’ll never get it done the way we could do it if we didn’t think about what others would think. Slay the dragons in your life. You’ll feel a lot better.

Thinking Out Loud ~ Don’t Fear the Adventure

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Joseph Campbell says in Reflections on the Art of Living in speaking of the heroes journey, “When one thinks of some reason for not going, or has fear, and remains in society, because it safe, the results are radically different from what happens when one follows a call. If you refuse to go, then you are someone else’s servant. When this refusal of the call happens, there is a kind of drying up, a sense of life lost. Everything in you knows that are required adventure has been refused. Anxiety build up. What you have refused to experience in a positive way, you will experience in a negative way. P 78

Note: When we refuse the call to go on the journey, we make excuses. We rationalize why it is safer not to go then to go. I have had colleagues who had wonderful opportunities where they could have made a big difference who refused to answer their call because they were afraid. They made elaborate excuses and they said, “I could have, I would have, but they didn’t. They lost their great adventure in that moment. Don’t fear the adventure.

 

Thinking Out Loud ~ Answer the Call

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Joseph Campbell says in Reflections on the Art of Living, “The heroes journey always begins with the call. One way or another, a guide must come to say, “Look, you’re in Sleepy Land. Wake. Come on a trip. There is a whole aspect of your consciousness, you’re being, that’s not been touched. So, you’re at home here? Well, there’s not enough of you there” And so it starts.

Note: I think at some point we’re all called to “the hero’s journey.” It begins if we hear the call. The call usually comes when it takes us to a place we don’t want to go. It takes us to a place where we are uncomfortable and challenged. If we answer the hero’s call, we will discover our true destiny through the multiple tests we’ll encounter. If we fail to answer the hero’s call, we’ll languish always wondering “what if.”

Thinking Out Loud ~ Take the Chance on the Adventure

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Joseph Campbell says in Reflections on the Art of Living, “Follow your bliss.  . . . The heroic life is living the individual adventure.  . . . Nothing is exciting. if you know what the outcome is going to be.  . . . You enter the forest at the darkest point. Where there is no path. Where there is a way or path it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential.” P. 22

Note: When we are young, we often look up to adults we admire and want to be like them. If we’re fortunate, the adults we admire step aside and help us to discover our gift and then encourage us to find the path that leads to developing our gift and sharing it with others. If we are tracked into someone else’s path, we may be successful and rich, but we’ll never fully discover our gift or potential. Take the chance on the adventure. There’s no security. You may get knocked down and forced to confront many challenges. They are there for you to grow, gain wisdom, and strength.

Inspiring Quote for Today ~ Live the Adventurous Life

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“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.

May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.”

Edward Abbey

Positive Thought of the Day ~ It’s Always Beginning

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“I realize something. That wasn’t a finish line for me…This is my new starting line.”

Wendelin Van Draanen
NOTE: Each time we accomplish a goal, each time we meet with a success we mark the starting place for the next adventure. Life calls us to keep moving forward. Life calls us not to look back but to look ahead to next great adventure.

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