Dig into this moment for treasure.
Adventure can come into your life in three ways.
The first is you choose an adventure. For example, you volunteer to sail with Christopher Columbus aboard the Santa Maria in 1492 because you want to help him find a way to India via the Atlantic Ocean. You live in cramped conditions, get nibbled by rats, break your teeth on ship’s biscuits and bump into the Americas instead. But, hey! you’re having the adventure you asked for!
The second way is adventure chooses you. As you stagger from the smoky interior of your favourite pub — the Fox and Hounds — you’re seized by burly thugs hired by the British government. After a heroic fight in which your nose is broken and left eye blackened, you’re bundled aboard HMS Swiftsure to learn to be a sailor. This 42-gun ship and its crew are captured by the Dutch in a fierce battle in 1666, and it’s doubtful you’ll ever get to sip a lukewarm pint in the Fox and Hounds again.
I’ll digress slightly before telling you the third way to have an adventurous life.
The word adventure comes from the Latin word adventurus, which means ‘about to happen.’ And that’s exactly what we think when we imagine living an adventurous life:
At any moment anything could happen!
An adventurous life is unpredictable; full of surprises; challenging; exciting; sometimes life-threatening.
What does an adventurous life involve? Perhaps it’s discovering a secret cave. Trekking through jungle undergrowth harboring sinuous snakes and mischievous monkeys. Finding a chest full of Bitcoin. Stumbling upon a rare plant reputed to give eternal youth. Or walking ancient ley line paths to find the meaning of existence.
Whatever it involves, it doesn’t look anything like your current life with its endless piles of dirty dishes, daily commutes, insidious annual bills and a boring orthopedic mattress with matching sheets.
So, what’s the third way to have an adventurous life?
You sit on the dock of the bay and dangle your feet in the water, musing on the fact that every moment — no matter what’s in it — is an adventure.
You don’t have to sign up for a risky venture, get caught up in someone else’s war or stuff a backpack with essentials and head for the hinterland. Your life, right now, is an adventure, because you don’t really know what’s going to happen next.
Your life is unpredictable, and full of surprises and discoveries. It’s challenging and exciting. And it’s life-threatening (we’ll all die before it’s over).
WHEN YOU LIVE WITH MINDFULNESS EVERY MOMENT IS AN ADVENTURE
Why do you long for an adventurous life?
Because you know it will bring out the best in you. Your dormant bravery, indominable spirit, generous nature and inherent wisdom will rise to the surface when you go on an adventure, if only you could find one worth undertaking.
Just realise you are already on one. Every day is an adventure. Every unpredictable moment calls for a response worthy of you.
The deaf and blind political activist, Helen Keller, wrote:
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
In reality, your life is one big adventure. You’re faced with choice, chance and change all the time.
You are the giant ‘X’ on the treasure map!
Dig into this moment for treasure.
That’s what mindfulness is all about.
With love, Marlane
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