Adventurous One, Have You Forgotten?

Maybe you’ve reluctantly tried to give yourself a title- entrepreneur, mom, artist, pioneer, poet, storyteller, teacher, creative, or some combination of them all- to bring some level of professionalism to your daily work. Honestly, it doesn’t matter what descriptive words we add to our name because underneath the fancy label is the heartbeat we all carry…for adventure.

Yes, we are the adventurous ones.  

We may not have what the world calls a business. We aren’t striving to reach the sought after six-figures. We will never be interviewed for our innovative ideas. Our stories and poems won’t land us on the best seller list. Our biggest risk might never look like climbing the tallest peaks or living in another country. But we don’t need a list of credentials or experiences, or a title to prove what’s already deep inside of us.

We are those willing to experiment, play, and create with what we hold in our hands- be it bread dough, a pencil, a paint brush, our child’s heart, or a random idea. Our goal is never expertise but exploration.

We don’t sit and wait for the perfect time or the confirmation to give us clarity and peace and permission to finally be ourselves. Instead, we actively listen and move with expectation to the rhythms of His breath, His Spirit swirling within us.

We release the need to understand before we surrender.

Adventurers chase the tangents, attempt the back flips despite their age. Failure is their daily salvation, evidence of His grace and their freedom to run and be.

Curiosity is a priority, risk is their favorite ingredient, and they are the ones who know mystery carries more answers than a map.

The compass for adventure finds its center on today.  Wherever we find ourselves be it in the living room, the desk, or our backyard, steeped in the responsibilities of life with young kids, or in a season of deep disappointment, we recognize the first page of the story, the trail head, always starts here.

An adventurer takes bold steps in the dark and decides to grow younger every day by hunting for the hard things, the intriguing, unanswerable questions. To them, the only real beauty is hidden within new challenges and impossible situations.  

Adventurers are obsessed with the question, “What’s next Papa?” Their whole life is about accepting anew the invitation to travel with a wild God, especially when they feel no courage or excitement bubbling on the inside.

Over and over again, they attempt to make magic out of their off-the-wall ideas, spin wonder out of their ordinary weeks, and birth beauty from their suffering.

They define success by how much joy, love, and light they release into the world. Success, for them, cannot be counted or measured with pen and ink, only heard in the thump, thump, thump of their waking heart.

I wonder, dear friend, have you forgotten you are an adventurous one? 

“We need people who long to walk the streets, not the red carpets; cling to authenticity, not to awards. People who admire the poor and the unknown, not the rich and the famous. Creatives who make haunting work- work that leaves the audience a little better off than they were when they first picked up the book or magazine, entered the theater or gallery, turned on the television or the Spotify playlist. Stay different. Stay weird. Be a peculiar people.
It’s a sign of the hope of glory within you.”

Erik Lokkesmoe, Different Drummer: Bold Thinking for the Rebellious Creative