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Posts from the ‘Adventure’ Category

Oct 20

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Inquiry and Expansion

“Push it. examine all things intensely and relentlessly.”― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

“Part of what restricts us seeing things is that we have an expectation about what we will see, and we are actually perceptually restricted by that expectation. In a sense, expectation is the lost cousin of attention: both serve to reduce what we need to process of the world “out there”. Attention is the more charismatic member, packaged and sold more effectively, but expectation is also a crucial part of what we see. Together they allow us to be functional, reducing the sensory chaos of the world into unbothersome and understandable units.”― Alexandra Horowitz, On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes

Leave space.
A crack.
A sliver.
Let light in.
Surprise.
Mystery and magnification.
Loosening expectations and assumptions.
To allow and invite.
A new angle on the same thing.
Embodiment.
Encounter.
Adventure.
Wonder and awe.

“Whenever there is stillness there is the still small voice, God’s speaking from the whirlwind, nature’s old song, and dance…”― Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters

Aug 9

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Wearing the Woods

“Some people talk to animals. Not many listen though. That’s the problem.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

A few minutes off leash in the woods.
Up and down and all around.
Romping up the side of the hill, over branches, through bushes.
Big smile inside and out.
A fresh coat of the woods to brush out.
Worth it.
Put on your big boots, go off leash, do some crazy good things.
Get off trail today.

“She would know a good thing to do without thinking about it.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Aug 6

To the Kite Flyers

‘’The only question in life is whether or not you are going to answer a hearty ‘YES!’ to your adventure.’’ – Joseph Campbell

“Adventure isn’t hanging off a rope on the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life” – John Amat

To the kite flyers
The hopscotchers
The jump ropers
The cannon ballers
The silly hearted
The yes’ers
The why not’ers
The gigglers
The butterfly chasers
The drummers
The dancers
The potters
The gardeners
The tryers
The dreamers
The doers of dream making
They show us that participating is better than spectating
That trying and failing then getting back up is better than never trying at all
That joy is a superpower
That optimism while still knowing the odds is brilliant
Join the club
Try something new today
See the world anew
Your adventure awaits.

“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want, on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”– Randy Komisar

Jun 15

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Joyous Exploration

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

“Every day is filled with opportunities to be amazed, surprised, enthralled—to experience the enchanting everyday. To stay eager. To be, in a word, alive.”― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing

In quiet moments.
Chance encounters.
Wandering and wondering.
Settling and pausing the grind.
Slow as syrup.
From mechanics to flow.
Nuance, beauty, delight.
May you wander off trail to joyous exploration.
Often.

“Let’s stop trying to be so productive all the time and make an effort to be more curious. Do you want to look back on a life of items crossed off lists drawn up in response to the demands of others? Or do you want to hang on to, and repeat, and remember, the thrill of discovering things on your own? Todd B. Kashdan, a professor of psychology at George Mason University, refers to curiosity as ‘joyous exploration’—defined as ‘the recognition and desire to seek out new knowledge and information, and the subsequent joy of learning and growing.’”― Rob Walker, The Art of Noticing

Apr 3

Into the Gaps

“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.”― Joseph Campbell

“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quite rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage.

I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.

Go up into the gaps. If you can find them; they shift and vanish too. Stalk the gaps. Squeak into a gap in the soil, turn, and unlock-more than a maple- a universe. This is how you spend this afternoon, and tomorrow morning, and tomorrow afternoon. Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

In the corners, crevices, gaps.
Thin sacred spaces.
The path unfolds walking it out.
Step by step.
You can never get lost becoming yourself.
A lifetime’s work.
Unfolding, unfurling, entering the mystery.
Engaging in the world.
Take the adventure.
Be kind, generous, bold.
Spend your time well.
Go into the gaps.

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.”― Joseph Campbell

Oct 27

Go Astray

“I need to be silent for a while, worlds are forming in my heart.”― Meister Eckhart

“Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”― Meister Eckhart

The path is rarely straight and smooth.
Take the detours.
Pull off to rest areas.
Go off trail.
Follow the winding road.
Pump the brakes.
Enjoy the scenery.
We arrive eventually.
And then start again and again, always from a new place.
Don’t miss the beauty, joy and delight of the journey focused only on the destination.
Go astray.
You are not lost, you are on the way.

“We rarely find people who achieve great things without first going astray.”― Meister Eckhart

Oct 7

Good at Astonishment

“Once you have gathered enough silence,
silence gathers you.”― Ivan M. Granger

“It took a lot of nerve for someone so ignorant of true wilderness to fashion herself as a nature writer, but the flip side of ignorance is astonishment, and I am good at astonishment.”― Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

May you fashion yourself to try new things.
To jump in the deep end, flounder, discover your buoyancy.
To dare to travel unfamiliar roads.
To seek adventure in foreign lands of your dreams.
Get good at astonishment.
We need more beginners, tryers and explorers.
Daring to become themselves and share it with the world.

“Through you
the world learns
to recognize itself— as heaven.”― Ivan M. Granger

Sep 26

Trusting in Advance

“I have learned that faith means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”― Philip Yancey

“One of the biggest regrets of life, I think, is a sense of having gone on the trip but missed the adventure.”― Gary Haugen

Don’t bypass, skip, miss the adventure.
Say “no” often to make room for more “yes’s”
The right things, ordinary moments, beauty woven in each day.
Detours, delays, rerouting all apart of the journey, not inconveniences, but inflection points.
People, places, spaces to enter, reside and celebrate this very short ride.
No regrets.

“No” is a complete sentence.”― Annie Lamott

Aug 31

Ride the Air

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.” – Toni Morrison

“The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Get a new perspective, a fresh view, a different angle
Loosen your grip, open your heart
Release thoughts of scarcity, comparison, someday when, not enough
In moments, in this day, and all it took to arrive
You are more than enough, complete and imperfect
Ride the air
Pockets of joy and delight
Sit here awhile for the work to be completed in you.

“What’s your best discovery?” asked the mole.

“That I’m enough as I am,” said the boy.”

― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Jun 20

Unknown Places

“In moments of insecurity and crisis, shoulds and oughts don’t really help; they just increase the shame, guilt, pressure, and likelihood of backsliding. It’s the deep yeses that carry us through. It’s that deeper something we are strongly for that allows us to wait it out. It’s someone in whom we absolutely believe and to whom we commit. In plain language, love wins out over guilt any day. It is sad that we settle for the short-run effectiveness of shaming people instead of the long-term life benefits of true transformation.”― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

“Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), the great American essayist, said “nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm.” What a deconstructed culture lacks, because of its deep cynicism and pessimism about reality, is a basic confidence and enthusiasm that is necessary to start almost anything.”― Richard Rohr, The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

Wander off path today.
To unknown places within yourself.
Covered up, put away, not done.
Beauty, unfolding, bold.
With wonder, curiosity and joy, let light in.
Break the rules, change the story, allow surprise.
Be transformed.

“Remember: The rules, like streets, can only take you to known places.”― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

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