Sunday, May 15, 2011

Daily adventure

Big or small, the daily adventure is important. Just as, in Abraham Lincoln's words, each day you have to choose to be happy, you also have to choose to get up off the couch, flip off the TV and go out and have an adventure. It can be as small as a walk where you kick rocks and dodge falling limbs from vengeful squirrels or as big as going for a ride in a hot-air balloon. No matter. The important thing is to have it as a part of your daily routine so you can break out of the rut and enjoy life. Once again, we're establishing a routine to help break the routine. Sweet!

For Teri and I, weekends are generally the only time for setting this template. We have part of Friday and then Saturday and Sunday together, most times. And the daly adventure doesn't have to cost an arm and a retirement account, however meager. Some of our daily adventures lately have included those springtime classics rainbow chasing and storm chasing. We've also went shopping for arbors for the wedding and tried to see the liftoff of the Walla Walla Hot-Air Balloon Stampede, which fickle weather canceled. That's no problem. We are learning to dance in the rain, which means to enjoy the process of pursuing the daily adventure rather than leaving all our happiness based on the end results.

The important thing is to be engaged not only with each other but with life. To get out there and do things. To see people and say hello, even if all our instincts, our generations of training, our genetics, are telling us to run and hide. Genetics are only 20 to 30 percent of who we are. The rest is the environment we create. By creating the daily adventure template, we are telling ourselves that each day we will be looking for opportunities for adventure, and when opportunities come knocking, we will answer the door with a smile.

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