Welcome to Raising Adventure!

Welcome to Raising Adventure!

Welcome to our community on Raising Adventure where we will be talking about why it is so important (more now than ever) to stand in the arena and raise your family through adventure.  Our world is increasingly becoming "safety-fied" and sedentary, especially with the increased use of screens in our daily lives.  The move away from exploration and adventure is increasingly waning for many of us.  This is doubly true for our children as their rate of "adventure" is disappearing at an alarming clip.  

At the most basic level, "raising" is defined by Websters as "to cause or help to rise to a standing position," "to lift up," or to "awaken."  This coupled with "adventure" as "an exciting or remarkable experience."  When we combine these two concepts, particularly through the lens of our responsibility as parents we are empowered to give our children a gift that truly can change their trajectory and ultimately, our world as we know it (said in a serious, albeit dramatic fashion).  

Several of the 1,000 hours
we were blessed to be outside.

Gone are the days when "we used to drink from the garden hose, ride bikes with no helmets, hike around the neighborhood without an adult...and when we had to walk to school, uphill, both ways...in the snow."  This movement isn't a harkening back to yesteryear or cast off the conveniences and comforts of everyday life...necessarily.  This is a call to action.  As Teddy Roosevelt, whose quote and philosophy is the namesake of this movement "Stand In The Arena" serves as a call to action.  It hopefully inspires you to build a lifestyle of adventure (your Arena, so to speak) and stand in it.  That sounds deceptively simple at face value...it becomes more complicated and challenging in practicality.  We'll talk about the enemies of adventure and what you'll have to overcome to get off the screens and out the door.  

We'll also talk about many other facets of living an adventurous lifestyle - the benefits, the best practices, the how-to's, the tools, tips, tricks, and other pieces that make adventure your reality.  We will unpack doable ways that you can inject more intentional adventure into your life.  Through the posts in this series, we'll share a combination of philosophy on adventure coupled with the academia of best practices, and grounded in the boots-on-the-ground experience.  We hope to translate and distill some of our experiences into the principles and systems we've created to show you how you, too, can create an adventurous lifestyle in your own home.  

Go adventure...do it now!

As we depart this introductory conversation, keep in mind that the call from our 26th President, who stressed the values of "the strenuous life" made the "Man in the Arena" excerpt of his speech a powerful and timeless call to action.  Stand in the Arena is, at its essence a plea and a demand to do life in a way that is outside the ruts of normality and mediocrity.  So, with that, we hope you join us on our shared journey to stand in the arena that we create and raise our young ones in and through adventure.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• List three adventures, big or small, that you'll put on the calendar for the coming season.
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Sit down with your family and make a bucket list of adventures you'd like to complete in the next couple of years.  List out the ones before something big (HS graduation, retirement, etc).
• Subscribe to some adventure social media channels to help get you in the mindset of doable adventures for your family.
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action)

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” – Rachel Wolchin

- The Endless Adventure - https://www.youtube.com/@Theendlessadventure

- Keep Your Daydream - https://www.youtube.com/@KeepYourDaydream 

- Importance of Nature - https://childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-to-spend-time-in-nature/