Adventure

“There are 30,000 days in your life. When I was 24, I realized I'm almost 9,000 days down. There are no warm-ups, no practice rounds, no reset buttons. Your biggest risk isn't failing, it's getting too comfortable. Every day, we're writing a few more words of a story. I wanted my story to be an adventure and that's made all the difference.” ~ Drew Houston
 
No one knows how many days we will have in life, I just want to make the most of each of the days I have.  But, the key point of the above quote, for me, is to not get to comfortable; I want to always learn, try new things and grow from my mistakes.  I want to make each day an adventure.
 
Last weekend was a good example of creating adventures.  We were driving home from Tubac, Arizona and the trip could have taken an hour.  But, we turned an hour drive home into a 7 hour adventure. I told my husband that I wanted to go check out Madera Canyon as we hadn’t been there in many years.  It was a delightful drive and on our way back to the freeway, we saw a dirt road.  We asked, “I wonder where that dirt road goes?” and we took out a map and the dirt road wasn’t on the map.  So, of course we decided to see where it went.  It was a breathtaking curvy narrow dirt road that provided spectacular views of the Arizona desert and grasslands.  At times it was a little unnerving as we hoped we didn't encounter another vehicle on the narrow hair-pinned curve - but risks are part of what makes it an adventure. After an hour and a half we ended up on a paved road and saw a sign to a town we knew named Sonoita, so we headed there for a late lunch.  We came the biggest commercial section on the one main street in town, but decided have another adventure and drive just a little further down the road and ended up at a charming restaurant called Café and had a scrumptious meal.  As we were about to head home, I saw a sign for Parker Canyon Lake, and since I love water and we were open to adventures, I wanted to check it out as a possible place to camp.  Again the scenery on the hour drive was spectacular and we had a wonderful time walking around the lake. Sure, I could have gotten home sooner, done the laundry, unpacked, and gone grocery shopping, but the adventure was far more worthwhile. I am so ecstatic that I avoided doing the “comfortable thing” and decided to take the road less traveled.

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I will keep on making my life one big adventure. This applies to more than road trip adventures, but to daily life adventures like writing this blog, and growing spiritually and artistically. One example is that I will always take art classes and learn new techniques and push myself even when it would be easier and more comfortable to paint the way I already am successful. I watch some participants at workshops that are afraid of failing and resort back to what works for them instead of trying new things.  Heck, I know that what I create at a workshop will look like crap, but it’s all about the process and learning new techniques. After the workshop, I will go home and practice and because I have the foundation from trying new things with the instructor’s assistance to correct my mistakes, I will be successful. I do not ever want to be too comfortable or complacent; I am willing to make mistakes, learn from them and grow.  I don’t know where the roads of life will lead, but I am certain that I will be making each one into an adventure.
 
Do you ever get too comfortable with life?  Are you still taking risks and making mistakes?
 
What was your latest adventure?