going on an adventure

"Adventure brings excitement, creative flow, and energy, and these are essential to you. Yours is a highly artistic nature. Continual stimulation is required to keep your psyche healthy. Experience something new today. Even if it's just a walk to a place you've never been, it will give you the adrenaline you need."  a recent horoscope for me, the epitome of a Sagitarius.

Yup, I'm one of those dorks who likes reading my horoscope.  Sometimes because it is just so wrong.  Sometimes because it is just so right.

This one caught my attention for the right part.  I've been a little bored lately.  I do crave adventure and newness.  Not the bungee jumping kind of adventure- I'm way too boring and restrained (and chicken) for that.  I do seem to live my life to say the words, "what the hell was I thinking?"  Sometimes it's helping backstage at a local theater show when I'm teaching summer camps every day. (which is in itself in the WTHWIT category).  Sometimes it's volunteering to cut hundreds of fringes for kids to tie pillows to give to hospital patients.  Sometimes it's taking classes at Penn State or taking up water colors or learning to play the oboe (or more recently clarinet) or Irish Step dancing or playing a piano duet at a recital or dying my hair orange (supposed to be blond, but it was orange).  I seem to crave putting myself out on a limb with the potential for huge embarrassment.  So right now I'm lacking in the potential for huge embarrassment department.  For some reason this makes me a little sad.

It also makes me think (something that I don't generally like to do.)  Do I really need to put myself out there to have adventure?  Heck, no.  My little life is loaded with adventure.  My two daughters are an adventure every day.  This morning we had the drama of auditions for that local theater.  This involved wailing.  If these two could put as much emotion on the stage, I could be a Broadway mother.  Oh, and let it be known, I was right.  Spawn #1 had a good time.  My job?  An adventure every day too.  I'm in constant motion doing who knows what every second of the day.  Our classroom motto is "be flexible".  The kids are always laughing at me- whether I'm calling them by the wrong names (some days I just call everyone "Fred") or saying some nonsensical word like "hooziedink" (their favorite).  One day my little buddy, who's always happy to let me know when I'm being goofy, said he was "having a Mrs. Koch moment."  Meaning that he was either forgetful or unfocused or silly or all of the above.  I had to laugh at that.  The college thing is not so much a whim anymore.  It looks like I'm actually going to pursue that advanced degree.  Who knew I would finally do that?  Not me.  For sure an adventure.  Taking classes with 20somethings who share their interesting weekend stories while the prof is in the room is a thrill.

This is the part of the blog where I have inserted random quotes about adventuring.

“Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” — Tolkien
So sometime take a walk and see where you end up.  It may be a walk past that fabulous house that you'd love to live in someday.  It may be the convenience store to buy a bag of contraband chips.  It may be through the woods or up a mountain or on the beach (if you're lucky).  It may not even be a walk.  Ignore the price of gas and take a wrong turn and keep on going.  You may drive past a llama farm or a gorgeous sun-dappled view.  Take a trip with your family (an adventure all of its own), get lost of course, tell stories, sing songs, fight with each other.  I may suggest you don't drive over a curb and trash your car on the way to the beach or leave the hot dogs on the kitchen counter on your way to the campsite.  (I may also suggest that you don't travel with my family.)

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.” — T.S Eliot
What do you lose by trying something a little far out?  Maybe some sleep.  Maybe a little bit of your self-respect for a little while.  But, all in all, the trying will probably get you a lot more than you lose.  Maybe not in the way you might think, but wisdom is also part of the adventure.


“Adventure isn’t hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply to the day to day obstacles of life.” — John Amatt
Who the heck is John Amatt anyway?  Whoever he is, he is absolutely right.  Life is the adventure.  There's no direct path from here to there.  There's more than one way to choose.  Keep adventure in your heart and be prepared to find yourself unprepared, untrained, and surprised.

“ if you’re alive, you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, you’ve got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death.” — Mel Brooks
Do not be well-behaved.  Make a scene in public.  Dance in your living room with your spawn.  The adventure of life is not a quiet thing.  Life is loud and wiggly.  (just like my kids)

Bored, schmored.  I have no reason or right to be bored.  There are books to read, songs to sing, places to go, and people to meet. I just need to decide which adventure to have today.