Adventure Ache

It is Tuesday, the second day of being back from a week long break from school. I'm sitting in a library after having just finished my Biology homework and stalking/editing the facebook world.  My feed is currently jam-packed with world-wide adventures considering I have friends spread across the globe this semester. Meanwhile, I just fine-tuned my work schedule, making sure I have a minimum of 30 hours, checked my grades, calculated my finances, called the grad school I am planning on attending, molded my planner to give me room to see people, study, and work-out, and then sat back exhausted. How ironic that just a few days ago I sat back exhausted because I had just hiked 9 miles on sand with all that I needed on my back. I have a very familiar aching in my heart. I call it the adventure ache. It resonates in the post and pre stages of extreme adventure and the more you get it, the more likely you are to succumb to it.

Now, I am a firm believer in the notion that never in any stage of your life do you have to settle to be miserable or discontent for a pay off later down the road. I am not a believer in fixes in life, an adventure fix to put you over until the next one, or a God fix that fills you until next Sunday, etc. I am a believer in the everyday chance of joy, the everyday opportunity to truly be filled. I realize that this is the harder belief system to hold and even harder to live by. But right now in this setting I am faced with a hard question: How do I partake in everyday contentment and live, I mean really live, in the mundane and the schedule? When I am looking at all of these pictures of unbelievable mountains, gorgeous cities, and ridiculous adventures how do I remain happy sitting in an uncomfortable library chair doing things I don't necessarily want to do?

I won't lie I didn't know how to answer that question when I typed it. So, I shut my computer and walked home. I plugged in my music and talked with God as I went. Asking Him, how do you be happy? As I asked and walked, the cold bit through my coat and made my eyes tear up. The wind rustled the grass as I walked beside it and the clouds moved in a lazy fashion through the sky. The campus was empty and an imagination-provoking instrumental was providing me a soundtrack to my movie-like walk. I noticed the empty treetops gently leaning and heard the sound of my footsteps. It was as if I had been forced to move in slow motion and lightning speed at the same time, losing sight of the meaning of time at all. To be happy? Notice the world around you. That's what God was telling me. Listen to the sound of nature, no matter how small, trace the same path everyday noticing the different colors, the way the sky is shaped, the people that walk across it. Make new memories with the people you love by being intentionally present, study hard because you know it's a blessing to even have a chance to learn. Pay attention to the intricate story that is being weaved throughout your life and the lives of others. Don't waste time being jealous of others lives, others opportunities of adventure, when you are passing up the adventure right in front of you. Choose to notice, choose to laugh, choose to let your imagination fill an empty field with little nymphs, fairies, and fauns. Because I can guarantee, that wherever you are, whatever stage of life you're in, there is an adventure waiting for you. God is constructing an intricate play, a hair-raising, tear-inducing, life-filling saga and all we have to do is open our eyes!