It’s an old memory. So faint that I can’t help but wonder how much of it has been filled in to make sense of a childhood fragment.
The memory is just my mom and I outside a gas station. I can’t be more than a couple years old. A thunderstorm breaks over our heads in a flash of lightning and a sudden, fierce downpour so loud that it nearly drowns the rumbling boom of thunder that follows. My mom meets my wide eyes, and her smile breaks wider. She is soaked to the skin, and she sweeps me up in arms. She is shaking, not with cold or fear but with laughter. Still holding my gaze through her rain-coated glasses, she exclaims with a voice full of joy and wonder, “What an adventure!”
I’ve loved thunderstorms ever since.
My mom would use that phrase again and again through my childhood, and even now in our adult years I hear it in our conversations when things are dark or uncertain. Sometimes there’s laughter in it. Other times it is just the sober recognition that not every adventure is one of delight and wonder. But whether it is one of light and joy or one of dark shadows and painful steps, thinking of our experience as an adventure changes things.
An adventure, after all, is something you embark upon and eventually emerge from. You’re the hero in an adventure, or at least a plucky sidekick. You have some agency in an adventure. You might not have chosen the adventure itself, but how you choose to face what comes at you can change everything. And of course, an adventure is best when it’s shared with others.
I believe that sharing our adventures is one of the things that has sustained human beings since the first campfires were lit. In sharing our adventures we might glimpse meaning in our footsteps, cast light into looming shadows, offer hope for others walking in our footsteps or at our sides, or at the very least a warning of the pitfalls that lie in our way.
My hope is that this blog will be a sort of digital campfire where some of our adventures may do exactly what adventures do when shared.
8 responses to “What an Adventure!”
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us!
Thanks for stopping by, Carli! It’s pretty bare bones right now, but it’s a work in progress. 😀
Bravo to you, Alex, for embarking on a blog adventure. I hope the writing process is cathartic for you and the outcome a blessing for others.
I’m here for it!
We LOVE a good story –even better that we have been there! (When you’re in the US< i will inflict my photos of the trip on everyone!
Alex, What a precious memory!! And I don’t remember the incident,but it reminds me to continue looking at life this way. Thanks for the reminder!!
I need more, Alex! Can’t wait for more blog and pix. I feel a bit of Tolkien coming on, perhaps? “Not all those who wander are lost…”–presumably, they are on adventures! Appreciate, as I always do, your insights, perspective, and subtle wisdom.
Oh wow. I was there, I heard the rain, I wanted to dry your Mom’s glasses so she could see clearly. I LOVE this viewpoint…What an Adventure! I’m here for it.