There’s Adventure In Everyday—Here’s How to Find It
A friend graciously let us stay in their mountain home for a week. My husband loves the mountains and has the facial hair and four wheel drive to prove it. I love adventure and so we headed north. The home, situated at the top of several winding, icy, muddy and unpaved roads made it impossible for some of the other cars to make it up the precipice. Since ours had four-wheel drive, I often served as the shuttle, from their cars parked near the highway to the few miles up. Straight up.
I hardly minded, because every time I turned a corner (which was often), I found each view more majestic than the next. How could someone not be impressed and in awe? Maybe it was the thin mountain air, but day after day it didn’t fail to take my breath away. I rolled down my windows and wondered if the people who live there ever get used to the view. How could they? If I lived here I would never get anything done or watch TV or read books. I’d just drive around staring out my windows. I’d pull over and hike trails or hunt for bears. It would be a beautiful adventure every single day.
I wondered if seeing that kind of amazing day after day—on the way home from a long day at work, or making a run to the store because you forgot the milk —if you stopped seeing it?
If the beauty ever got old? Or if it becomes so mundane that you simply stopped paying attention.
There Is Adventure in Everyday
I felt a nudge, this questioning in my heart that was asking what kind of beauty was I missing every day. What kind of amazing breath taking things have I gotten used to? What everyday adventures am I not embarking on?
The freckles across my daughter’s nose.
Taking the long way home.
The intense brown of my son’s eyes.
Getting to know the person beside me in line.
The sound of my husband’s light snoring as he sleeps and ability to fix most things broken., including from time to time my own heart.
Backyard picnics.
Exploring a new parts of my old city.
The pink and purple sky as I get to watch the sun sneak over the horizon on my way too early morning drive on my way to work.
Sometimes I see these things of course, but most of the time I look straight past them. Sometimes I notice the opportunities in front of me, but often everyday adventures get lost in the everyday.
Does the Mundane Blur the Beauty?
It is a long drive from the mountains back home, with a time change not in my favor.
My daughter asked to stop at every single McDonald’s we passed and fought with her brother. My husband took over the radio. The mountains, long past the rear view mirror and I spent very little time staring out my windows because the flat landscape of brown and flat doesn’t evoke the same emotions I felt a few hundred miles ago.
The punch of reality hit with each encroaching mile: the mundane of work, bills, to do lists and forgetting to buy the milk at the grocery store.
Even though we left early in the morning while everyone else was still in their pajamas scrambling around the kitchen for a cup of coffee, we did not make it home before the sun.
Right as we hit the city the sun started to sink just below the horizon, pink and orange and all kinds of pretty. Thankfully I wasn’t driving because all I could do was stare out my window…
Taking in the beauty in front of me. In my own zip code. In my own city.
Wondering, if the people who live here ever get used to this view.
Wondering, if the people who live here ever get tired of exploring.
Deciding right then and there to do my best not to.
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Need a little help looking for the highlights? We offer some tips in this podcast episode: Finding Happiness In an Unhappy World – 210
