Have a great adventure!
This is m
y 3 year-old nephew's favourite expression. He uses it interchangeably with "have a nice adventure" in much the same way service personnel tell us to "have a great day" at the end of a transaction, or the way we might close off a "goodbye" or "so-long" statement with family and friends: by saying "have a good time ... nice evening ... great day at work ..." ... and so on.
Mikey loves that word. Adventure. He keeps asking what it "akshully means," but I have yet to look it up in the dictionary, because I realized a long time ago that he instinctively knows the true meaning of adventure ... due to the simple fact that he has not yet reached his fourth birthday. As a youngster, he is still discovering the world around him. Everything is alternately new and exciting or scary and challenging. He approaches both versions of his world with equal portions of abandon, curiosity and eagerness, tempered by a healthy dose of caution. But not enough caution to stop him from learning more about that which may be scary or dangerous. He is constantly learning new things about the physical world and about language as well.
He practices his vocabulary on us continously and never tires of discussing his latest discovery in the garden. "Hey, what is that plant doing in the middle of the lawn?" "I think it's a weed, Mikey." "No, it is not a weed. I know what weeds look like. This is a PLANT!" Said with emphasis and delight and some consternation. "So, what is a plant doing in the middle of the grass? And look, you guys cut it with the lawn mower, but it's still a plant!" He proceeds to walk around the area where he had made the discovery and inspects it, checks the rest of the lawn for evidence of more plants, scratches his head, asks again "what the heck is going on here" ... and eventually moves on to something else. Later in the day, he excitedly informs us of his discovery and spends many days thereafter asking about other plants and where they grow, when they grow, why grass is different ... and what is so BAD about weeds anyway." All done with great excitement, humour and wonder.
I hope he never loses his sense of wonder and excitement. Because every day is an adventure for him. We adults have forgotten how to view our world and the people in through the lense of wonder. We have become busy, jaded and critical ... too content to remain locked in our own complacent assumptions and unwilling to embrace new ideas, new situations, new challenges! If only we could see it all as one big adventure!
Well, my friend Miss Lizzy has just announced that she willl soon be flying off to St. Kitts, having accepted a job down there. Now, granted, she has been there before and she has family there. So she won't be going through a full-out adjustment to a totally new set of people, places and cultural variances as I once had to. Still, this move is big and life altering. She has been working toward it for some
time. I suspect that many folks that knew what she was planning have been very supportive, while one or two others have not always offered the most positive feedback.
At times, we have to listen to the cautionary tales through the voices of those that care about us. At times, there will be others who seek to discourage us from following our dreams, purely based on their own stuff ... perhaps jealousy, perhaps because they have had their own challenges and feel weighed down and regrettful of their decisions. Who knows? But Miss Lizzy hasn't let any of the less than possitive feedback get in the way of what she knows is in her heart - a desire to make a life for the next period of time - whatever that may look like - on an island in the Caribbean that has embedded itself in the hearts and souls of one or two of us!
So, rather than gush on about how much I admire the decision and the tenacity to persue her goal, yada, yada, to Miss Lizzy I say this:
Have a GREAT ADVENTURE!
Not a nice adventure ... a GREAT one!
And embrace each day through a new lense, with open mind and heart! Live each and every day as if you were three again!
y 3 year-old nephew's favourite expression. He uses it interchangeably with "have a nice adventure" in much the same way service personnel tell us to "have a great day" at the end of a transaction, or the way we might close off a "goodbye" or "so-long" statement with family and friends: by saying "have a good time ... nice evening ... great day at work ..." ... and so on.Mikey loves that word. Adventure. He keeps asking what it "akshully means," but I have yet to look it up in the dictionary, because I realized a long time ago that he instinctively knows the true meaning of adventure ... due to the simple fact that he has not yet reached his fourth birthday. As a youngster, he is still discovering the world around him. Everything is alternately new and exciting or scary and challenging. He approaches both versions of his world with equal portions of abandon, curiosity and eagerness, tempered by a healthy dose of caution. But not enough caution to stop him from learning more about that which may be scary or dangerous. He is constantly learning new things about the physical world and about language as well.
He practices his vocabulary on us continously and never tires of discussing his latest discovery in the garden. "Hey, what is that plant doing in the middle of the lawn?" "I think it's a weed, Mikey." "No, it is not a weed. I know what weeds look like. This is a PLANT!" Said with emphasis and delight and some consternation. "So, what is a plant doing in the middle of the grass? And look, you guys cut it with the lawn mower, but it's still a plant!" He proceeds to walk around the area where he had made the discovery and inspects it, checks the rest of the lawn for evidence of more plants, scratches his head, asks again "what the heck is going on here" ... and eventually moves on to something else. Later in the day, he excitedly informs us of his discovery and spends many days thereafter asking about other plants and where they grow, when they grow, why grass is different ... and what is so BAD about weeds anyway." All done with great excitement, humour and wonder.I hope he never loses his sense of wonder and excitement. Because every day is an adventure for him. We adults have forgotten how to view our world and the people in through the lense of wonder. We have become busy, jaded and critical ... too content to remain locked in our own complacent assumptions and unwilling to embrace new ideas, new situations, new challenges! If only we could see it all as one big adventure!
Well, my friend Miss Lizzy has just announced that she willl soon be flying off to St. Kitts, having accepted a job down there. Now, granted, she has been there before and she has family there. So she won't be going through a full-out adjustment to a totally new set of people, places and cultural variances as I once had to. Still, this move is big and life altering. She has been working toward it for some
time. I suspect that many folks that knew what she was planning have been very supportive, while one or two others have not always offered the most positive feedback.At times, we have to listen to the cautionary tales through the voices of those that care about us. At times, there will be others who seek to discourage us from following our dreams, purely based on their own stuff ... perhaps jealousy, perhaps because they have had their own challenges and feel weighed down and regrettful of their decisions. Who knows? But Miss Lizzy hasn't let any of the less than possitive feedback get in the way of what she knows is in her heart - a desire to make a life for the next period of time - whatever that may look like - on an island in the Caribbean that has embedded itself in the hearts and souls of one or two of us!
So, rather than gush on about how much I admire the decision and the tenacity to persue her goal, yada, yada, to Miss Lizzy I say this:
Have a GREAT ADVENTURE!
Not a nice adventure ... a GREAT one!
And embrace each day through a new lense, with open mind and heart! Live each and every day as if you were three again!
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