Sunday, July 27, 2003

The Spirit of Adventure

I just returned from the first of what I'm sure will be many Adventure Coach Outings on South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. This one was designed to help coaches make nature, the outdoors and adventure a part of their practice and offerings.

Thank you, Randy, Robyn, Joelle, Kelly, Karen and Mary Kay!

Besides entertaining me with some outrageous antics and humor, these coaches from Colorado, Minnesota and Ontario helped me expand my definition of adventure. I'm so much clearer about what I want adventure to be for me.

Risk: To embark on a true adventure, I must experience some dare and the courage to push beyond adversity and boundaries. This is not to say that my adventures must be life and limb threatening. While I enjoy a little adrenaline now and then, I don't have to chase tornadoes or triumph over nature in some way. The risk can come from stretching myself a little more by dropping an old belief I have held and trying something new.

Expansion: Through exploration and discovery my knowledge and experience expands. I learn something new or get clearer about my environment, others, and myself.

Wandering: In my adventures there is some unknown, some mystery. I feel adventurous when I wander just enough that I don't know how something will work out, who I may meet, how I might get from point A to point B, or maybe even when the adventure will end. Even better if something is left at the end of my adventure that remains unsolved.

Internal: My adventures are as much internal as they are external. Even when adventuring with others, part of what is happening within me is very solitary, very personal and internal. And if I've done the internal part right, it continues long after the physical adventure has ended.

Earned: I want an adventure that gives me the feeling of having “earned” something. Of having paid my dues in some way. And my reward is that at the end of the adventure, the simple things in my life now feel exquisite.

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear nor mountain heights where bitter joys can hear the sounds of wings." ~Amelia Earhart