Leave the Routine Road

Pen and colored pencil sketch-Bellingham Bay

Lately I read the Robert Frost poem "Unharvested".  In it he used a phrase that struck a chord with me.  It was written like this:

A scent of ripeness from over a wall.

And come to leave the routine road

And look for what had made me stall, 

There sure enough was an apple tree

That had eased itself of its summer load...

We all struggle with keeping a balance in life between the tyranny of the urgent and the daily round of doing chores, going to work, and keeping life organized.  And keeping a schedule keeps chaos at bay.  But at the same time, we can get so stuck in that cycle that we forget to notice the unusual or any oddity that presents itself.  We don't nourish our curiosity by pursuing the quest to find out things.  If you are around small children any, you will be bombarded by lots of "Whys" about things.  Somehow in the growing up process, we forget to ask why or how or what.

Keeping an inquisitive mind takes effort.  Digital technology bombards us with the constant text message or Facebook notification.  We can walk past people and never look up from our device to notice them.  Noticing things is a part of being fully alive and engaged with the world.  It keeps us focused on where our feet are...on what is happening in our environment.  Giving yourself permission to leave the routine road on occasion opens up new possibilities and opportunities.  Life becomes more of a fascinating adventure.  I love the poem by Sara Teasdale about the things in life to see and hear and feel and smell, that can't be bought with money:

Barter

Life has loveliness to sell,

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children's faces looking up

Holding wonder like a cup.

Live has loveliness to sell,

Music like a curve of gold,

Scent of pine trees in the rain,

Eyes that love you, arms that hold,

And for your spirit's still delight,

Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost;

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be.

I like what King Solomon wrote in the book of Proverbs that encourages us to be on a life-long quest for gaining wisdom and understanding in life.  He urges one to "cry out for insight, to ask for understanding, to search for them like silver, to seek them like hidden treasures."  Those are vivid action verbs expressing a yearning and deep, down desire to learn and gain wisdom.  This life is so full of amazing, fascinating things.  Above all the possible subjects to study, the first and best place to start is with the foundation, which King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said was with the Creator God of the universe.  This is where true knowledge begins.  It's where God unlocks His heart to us and makes us wise and alive to all the rest of this fabulous creation we live in.  So leave the routine road, get curious again, and enjoy the adventure of being a life-long learner!

Leaving the routine road in the Pacific Cascades

Live bravely and beautifully!

Adventure Awaits!

(Woodburned house sign on old pine)

Have you had an adventure lately?  Do you live an adventurous life?  I like what Helen Keller said about the topic:  "Life is either a great adventure or nothing."  Not much squirm room for gray area there.  G.K. Chesterton provides an interesting perspective on the subject:  "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered.  An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."  Apply that to your next vexing circumstance!

One of America's most adventurous presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, gave this commentary about an adventurous person:  "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

Being a creative person as an artist puts one on the route of an adventurous life. It is risky and takes courage to create art.   I like what filmmaker Godfrey Reggio said about the process:  "A life of creativity is a life of risk.  It is a life going beyond your ordinary, or embracing the odyssey, of leaving your familiar, of trying to make a contribution."

(Small watercolor study of Medicine Bow Peak, WY)

What is an adventure?  The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as "an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks, or an exciting and remarkable experience."

Does that appeal to you?  A number of years back I read to my four children the amazing account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 epic attempt to cross the Antarctic overland with his crew.  How would you respond to a Want Ad like this?!

"MEN WANTED: FOR HAZARDOUS JOURNEY. SMALL WAGES, BITTER COLD, LONG MONTHS OF COMPLETE DARKNESS, CONSTANT DANGER, SAFE RETURN DOUBTFUL. HONOUR AND RECOGNITION IN CASE OF SUCCESS.

- SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON"

You can read more about this heroic, gripping, suspenseful tale in the book Endurance:  Shackleton's Incredible Voyage.  

What makes people take risks and dare boldly?  What takes people to the top of the world's highest mountains, on treks across the Sahara, or on solo crossings of an ocean?  What is it that drives a human being to endure extreme conditions, to leave one's comfort zone, and risk daringly? 

(Small watercolor study of Mt. Whitney, CA)

Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Paul Tournier wrote that there is a need for adventure in the heart of man.  He goes on to say "that the majority of broken lives that we see seem to be suffering from the fact that this need has been repressed and is gnawing away inside...their lives remain fossilized, as it were, in conventionally mediocre patterns." The antidote to mediocrity in life is responding to a life of faith lived in God.  Seeking after God is the most wonderful adventure of a lifetime.  As Dr. Tournier expresses, "it takes all those who commit themselves to it much farther than they expect.  It is the source of an ever-buoyant enthusiasm."  I like how St. Augustine of Hippo put it:  "To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement."

So....what's holding you back?  Adventure awaits!

"The Road goes ever 

On and on

Down from the door where it began.

Now far ahead the Road has gone,

And I must follow,

If I can,

Pursuing it with eager feet,

Until it joins some larger way."

---J.R.R. Tolkein

Live bravely and beautifully!