Adventure Is Out There

Adventure is Out There

Go cow tanking down
the river.

Adventure is out there...the premise being that it's outside your four walls at home.  Whether you live in an apartment, a van, a modest home, or a monster mansion...most adventure is past the front door.  The good news is that we don't often have to go very far from home to find it - backyard, walk around the block, greenway, city park, nearby state park, national park, or anywhere in between.  There are some adventure-adjacent things we can do at home - read about it, watch shows about it, study it...but it's hard to do when we're inside.  Watching a show about fishing is not the same as actually fishing.  Reading about mountain climbing isn't the same as doing it.  

Or climbing.

When we "consume" adventure instead of participating in it, we slowly but surely lose our will and ability to partake physically in it.  My grandfather, as a young man, was a pretty active outdoorsman.  By the time I'd come along, he'd spent so much time sitting in the easy chair watching adventure that he'd lost the physical ability to actually do much outside.  He'd traded doing for storytelling...then slowly lost his own stories to recollections of other people's televised travels.  We owe it to ourselves...particularly our future selves to get outside and "do" adventure so that we can later get out and do adventure.  Similarly, we owe our children and grandchildren the continued commitment to getting out.  

Or bird watching on 
the roof.

We noticed on a recent trip to a Midwest state that most people were pretty comfortable going from air-conditioned space to air-conditioned space - home to car to store to dinner to store to car to home.  Consequently, over time, they (and we) become conditioned and addicted to the creature comforts...and it becomes easier to say "no" when the adventure opportunities present themselves.  This has a slippery slope effect as it relates to mental, physical, and probably gets into emotional/spiritiual health as well.  I know when we're engaged beyond ourselves...life is better at our house.  When we're out and doing physical things, we stay in better shape...which in turn...makes it easier to do more things.  Similarly, our mental/emotional/spiritual health all feels more in balance and more healthy when we're not just staring at screens.  

Or hiking.

Stewardship is another big part of getting our kids out the door to adventure.  Our children are getting increasingly removed from adventure and the outdoors in general.  Between our safety-fied culture where we inordinately avoid anything that might create a band-aid and our busy schedules that make it easy to skip adventures - big and small...our children aren't learning to love our natural spaces.  Similarly, as we do more screen time instead of travel time, we lose our appreciation for those around us and different from us.  As this generation grows up...without a strong adventure/outdoor/travel foundation...they'll vote differently in their elections and with their dollars.  We'll officially lose the things we've already given up because we learned not to love the wild places and spaces.  

Or build something.

Adventure can take many, many forms and shapes.  This summer we've been building the cabin/shed/fort/castle in the backyard.  The kids have had an opportunity to learn building skills while working on their math and planning as well.  You can add in a road trip, hike, camp out, new festival, or food...there isn't a strict rubric of "if you didn't get eaten by a grizzly bear, it doesn't count as adventure."  If anything, perhaps the rubric is "would you tell your grandkids about it?"  In other words, the reminder here is that chances of you telling your grandkids about that epic spreadsheet you made in your fluorescent-lit office... are slim to none.  

Or just a 
walk.

As we wrap up this week, we're sitting in a hotel in Santa Fe, NM after attending the Zozobra Festival last night (following a recommendation from last year at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival).  Sure, it's 12 round-trip hours in the car and a few bucks in gas and hotels...but at a certain level...you were going to spend the time anyway, and it can cost what you want it to in large part.  Spending a few hours of great music, reminding you to burn your glooms every so often, and seeing maybe the best pyrotechnic show we've ever seen...priceless...and probably on the tell-grandkids-list.  It doesn't have to be epic...it does have to be routine...and you just have to do it.  Go adventure...out there.  

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

Call to Action: 

• Pick out three adventures - big or small - that you and your family can partake in during the next month.  Schedule them and keep the plan.
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in terms of the calendar and budget that you're going to make your adventure lifestyle.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Zozobra