loving the great Northwest adventures so close to us!
"All of life is an adventure. It might not be as grand in some places as others, but think of life not as a burden but as an opportunity." –Bruce Heilman
But one thing I'm learning about adventure, and a trip down the aisles of REI confirms it, is that most of the time it's an intentional thing.
Adventurers don't let adventure find them. They seek it out. They plan the hike, they research the trail, they get the right equipment. And then they buy the plane ticket.
So if life is an adventure, like we like to say it is, why do we make it seek us out? Why aren't we out there loving bigger and bleeding grace? Why aren't we seeking out the hurt and the grief-stricken? Why aren't we making better use of our time?
Our quick lives are full of turns and joys and disappointments. They were never meant to be comfort filled existences lived on sofa cushions. We were made for adventure, for living life in a a big way by sharing our hearts and our homes with the world.
Adventure doesn't look for us, adventure must be made. And besides that, very few people ever had a great story to tell while sitting on the sofa.
What adventure will you make today? Who will you love? How will you use your time differently today?
"Share your enthusiasm for the world around you, for joy is infectious. 'Enthusiasm' comes from the Greek word enthousiasmos, which means 'infused with the divine spirit.' If you are connected to and interested in all that goes on around you, your children will be, too. They will see God's presence everywhere." –Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kenison pg 183
bless this nest, Lord,
of fragile things,
encircling the breakable and broken
in grace,
in the ever warmth of Your wing,
in the sheltering shadow of Your face,
us the clinging ones,
You our clutch of hope,
singing to us the song
of home.
-ann voskamp
"….. we all want to be welcomed. We all want to be brought in from the cold, from the aloneness, into a warm space filled with friendship. We want to belong. We'd love to have a person fling their door open, burst into smile, throw their arms around us and say, Get yourself in here." http://winncollier.com/doors/
"Spirituality is the sacred center out of which all life comes, including Mondays and Tuesdays and rainy Saturday afternoons in all their mundane and glorious detail…." Christina Baldwin
unicycling in the city...
A jazz musician once said, "If you can't find your rhythm, you can't find your soul…"
continuing our MLK tradition from TN here in WA
Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated. - Dr. Martin Luther King
Martin Luther King preached, "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, that rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
celebrating Tracey's 40th birthday in Spokane, WA.... :)
"Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there.
— Judith Viorst
"The world, seen through the eyes of a child, is a delicious, irresistible place. And for the moment anyway, I am the lucky adult companion of two children, my own sense of wonder renewed each time we step out the door and look around us."
-Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kenison pg 116
"Oh for the wonder that bubbles in my soul." D.H. Lawrence
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
— Leo F. Buscaglia
Some quotes about new beginnings for the new year:
Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. -Henry Ward Beecher
Begin today. Declare out loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy. -Sarah Ban Breathnach
The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. -Steve Jobs
Start wherever you are and start small. -Rita Baily
Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. -Alan Cohen
I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. -J. B. Priestly
Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. -Saint Francis of Assisi
The secret to living the life of your dreams is to start living the life of your dreams today, in every little way you possibly can. -Mike Dooley
Life is not a dress rehearsal. Stop practicing what you're going to do and just go do it. In one bold stroke you can transform today. -Marilyn Grey
The beginning is the most important part of the work. -Plato
There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction. -Franz Kafka
You don't need endless time and perfect conditions. Do it now. Do it today. Do it for twenty minutes and watch your heart start beating. -Barbara Sher
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. -Theodore Roosevelt
Don't worry about being worried. You're heading out on an adventure and you can always change your mind along the way and try something else. -Tracy Kidder
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves, otherwise we harden. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's work is all that I can permit myself to contemplate. -John Steinbeck
You will never win if you never begin. -Helen Rowland
If all you can do is crawl, start crawling. -Rumi
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. -Maria Robinson
The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want. -Ben Stein
Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. -Henry Ford
Begin somewhere; you cannot build a reputation on what you intend to do. -Liz Smith
A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be. -Bruce Springsteen
Some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity. -Gilda Radner
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one. -Mark Twain
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
He has drawn back, only in order to have enough room for his leap. -Friedrich Nietzsche
Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose – not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember. -Anne Sullivan
Whatever you do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Don't wait for something big to occur. Start where you are, with what you have, and that will always lead you into something greater. -Mary Manin Morrissey
The secret to a rich life is to have more beginnings than endings. -Dave Weinbaum
Don't look further for answers: be the solution. You were born with everything you need to know. Make a promise to stop getting in the way of the blessing that you are. Take a deep breath, remember to have fun, and begin. -Jonathan H. Ellerby
