Adventure

This week's random photo challenge was "Adventure". I had really planned to take Bug outside and snap a few shots of him knee deep in the snow aiming his bow & arrow at the concrete deer that decorate our garden. With our hectic week and even busier weekend that didn't happen.

Instead I came up with this to somewhat compliment this week's poem, because love is an adventure after all, isn't it?




As always, you can read this week's challenge poem over at Impassioned Versifier. The rest of this week's photo submissions can be found at Photography139.

Intuition

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"Let your internal voice accompany and lead you"


It's funny how a subject can follow you from conversation to conversation. Lately the word intuition has been popping up all over the place for me. A mother's intuition, a single woman's intuition, intuition as an act of self-preservation, intuition towards positive things as well. The older I get, the more I realize that my intuition is usually pretty well right on.

I'll admit, when I was a young woman I rarely listened to my intuition at all. I remember my dear sweet mother once telling me that little nagging voice I heard was God speaking to me through my heart and I had better listen. Hindsight is 20/20 of course. Had I listened to her and that soft spoken internal voice, I probably would have saved myself a lot of heartache and trials through the years.

I think my biggest problem is that I have always trusted in the good in people before being wary of the bad. As we get older we start to lose our innocence and realize that not every person in our life is mindful of our feelings, wants, and needs. We start to pick up those little clues that something is amiss. Intuition (if we listen to it) can tell us that there is danger ahead; that someone is not to be trusted, that someone is playing games, that by following our current course we may be setting ourselves up for hurt, that there is some sort of looming danger ahead even if we don't know what it is.

Intuition can also let us know when something is a good opportunity for us, even if we don't fully know why. Intuition can motivate us because that nagging little voice is telling us it's time to get up and get moving.

My intuition has been trying to speak to me for several months now. Heck, it has probably been whispering for the last couple years. Now it's hammering at me. It's telling me to get up and get moving, that there's something better down the road.

It's been pretty easy for me to ignore it up until now. I have a good life right here, right now. I have two wonderful children, a house full of laughter and happiness, a roof over my head, food on the table, a fantastic group of co-workers, and fabulous friends just to mention a few of my blessings. That little voice keeps getting louder though, and it keeps telling me I need to make a big change in order to remain happy and blessed and to work towards whatever it is that I was set in this world to do or be part of.

My intuition rarely steers me wrong anymore. I listened to it over the summer when it told me that someone was attempting to take advantage of who I am as a person, it was right, that person did not have my interest in mind at all. I listened to it when I quietly prepared myself to be a solid rock for my children in the late fall. I realized it was right again as I cuddled and comforted my babies. My intuition has even helped me realize when to be a friend and when not to, prompting me to call and check on one friend I haven't heard from in awhile and refusing to talk to another when that voice told me they weren't being truthful with someone that cares about them. In both cases my intuition was correct and I feel I made the right decisions.

So my intuition tells me to get moving, what does that mean? Quite honestly, I can't tell you exactly. I still don't know what the big life changing event is, but I feel very strongly that with all my small little projects I am working towards it. Maybe mysterious intuition is telling me nothing more than I need to keep working towards my goals and not let life get stagnant. Maybe it's telling me there is something down the road I need to work to avoid. Perhaps it's telling me that there is something big and great waiting for me if I just keep working towards it.

I get you intuition... you're loud and want me to pay attention, now please tell me specifics.

What do you think of intuition? And what does yours say to you?

“Intuition is a combination of historical (empirical) data, deep and heightened observation, and an ability to cut through the thickness of surface reality. Intuition is like a slow motion machine that captures data instantaneously and hits you like a ton of bricks. Intuition is a knowing, a sensing that is beyond the conscious understanding — a gut feeling. Intuition is not pseudo-science.”

Abella Arthur


“I feel there are two people inside me - me and my intuition. If I go against her, she'll screw me every time, and if I follow her, we get along quite nicely.”

Kim Basinger


“You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide”

Ingrid Bergman


"Closing time, you don’t have to go home
But you can’t stay here"

Matchbox 20

A thought on Identity

photo courtesy of Andrew Hefter

~ The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose. ~

Richard R Grant

Under the Sea - Dream Adventure #2

Blame it on my Dad with his influential love for wilderness and fishing. Blame my Grandparents for providing the grandchildren with the opportunity to stay at their house on the lake for weeks at a time in our youth. Blame my mother for instilling an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and experience in me at a young age.

I have long been a swimmer, even now maintaining my $50 a month YMCA membership just for access to the pool. (lovely small town Iowa with only one year-round accessible pool). I took my fill of science classes in high school. At one time I was on the right track to attend LSU's Marine Biology program, having been accepted into their pre-science program by the time I was a Senior in high school.

Then life happened. Personal situations changed and I decided that I didn't want to raise a baby by myself all the way down in New Orleans while juggling college and work. I don't regret choosing motherhood. I don't regret working my way through the local junior college or the important life lessons I've learned along the way. I wouldn't trade in those last years I had with my parents or the new life I had with my children for anything.

That doesn't mean that my dream of underwater adventures has to die though. I still dream that one day I will take an opportunity to learn how to scuba dive, that I will some how be able to afford the equipment and treat myself to a few water world visits. Maybe Australia, maybe the Johnson atolls or Tarawa, maybe the Bahamas, or the Gulf of Mexico. There are so many underwater territories that I still dream of exploring and I will get there some day!

For the monsters under my bed - Adventure #1

"Do it for the living and do it for the dead, do it for the monsters under your bed"

That line is from Loose Lips, one of my favorite songs from Kimya Dawson. For some reason whenever I think about this particular adventure on my dream list this line pops into my head.

Heights are the monster under my bed. Which is probably why so many of you are going to find my first listed adventure unbelievable. I do want to try it though!

Just once.

With a guide.

And those security cables.

And maybe a parachute just in case.

And maybe one of my left over Xanax for good measure.

Yes, I want to try rock climbing. I want to confront that monster under my bed and I want the feeling of accomplishment. I want to push my limits. This is will probably be the most personally challenging adventure on my list.

I've been sitting here trying to imagine how I would feel clinging to a wall of rock searching for my next purchase. Trying hard to look only up, not down. Knowing that one false move will leave me dangling in the air by a (hopefully) secured cable.

I'm going to be terrified. I will probably have tears streaming down my face. That isn't going to stop me though. Someday I will have the opportunity and I will take/face it.

A New Adventure

It's almost Independence Day! I am so looking forward to a fun weekend kicking it back at the lake with my Aunt, sans kids! We are toying with the possibility of catching a concert before the fireworks Saturday night. It would be the highlight of my get away if we did as I think the opening singer, Bonne Finken, is phenomenal. And, well, you can't really go wrong with the Nadas either, can you?

I am hoping that this little get away will help me clear my head. I've been mulling over some pretty heavy thoughts lately. specifically, what do I want to do with my life before I lose my youth? You see, I've always been one of those people that accepts what life hands me. Although I was quite a risk taker in school, I have kept my adventures pretty low key since having my children. Life hands you kids and you are bound to be responsible and set good examples. And I have enjoyed that responsibility very much.

Recently I started following the blog of Roz Savage. She is an amazing British woman that is rowing solo across the Pacific. A very inspiring woman, if you ask me. Don't worry, I realize I'm not in a position where I can give up everything to trek across the world. I'm not really sure I would have the guts or ambition to either. Since I started following Roz's blog I've also had many discussions with several friends that are going through life limiting issues. One friend has a herniated disc in his back, another had surgery that will probably result with her in a wheelchair for the rest of her life, and yet another friend has been dealing with MS for many years now (and she has an amazing attitude about it). Combine all those factors with the realization that my mother more than likely had cancer at my age (she passed shortly after turning 40).

All these factors together cause this little voice inside me to start screaming... I'm not done living yet!! Heck, I've hardly begun!!

As a result, I've started compiling a little list of the top ten adventures that I dream about. My bucket list, of sorts, if you will. I thought over the next few weeks I might share some, or even all, of my list with you. As long as you don't hold me to accomplishing all of them or you help inspire me to achieve some of them if you can.

And I'm curious... what are the adventures you dream about the most?

A Mediterranean Day Dream

Today is Mother's Day, so I should be doing a motherish type post. Nope, not gonna do it. I already posted one for the family on A Glimpse of Us anyway*. Right now I'm in that day dreamy mood.

You see, a while back I was having one of those "getting to know you" chats with Coach. I believe the subject at the time was something along the lines of where I would like to travel in the United States. Really, I'm happy to travel anywhere that I get the opportunity to, I'm not picky (which I think was slightly frustrating for him). I would like to see the ocean and Yellowstone though, but nothing so pressing that it's a must-see.

Then Saturday night a friend mentioned about how he had the strong desire for international travel some time soon. At that point he was leaning towards South America.

Couple that with the facts that I have been casually flipping through a book I purchased from the clearance bin on great philosophers and I love the performing arts.

I have been researching and playing on the Internet all evening (yes, this has been a relaxing Mother's Day!)

Hmmm.... have you figured out yet where I want to go?

Yep, you guessed it (the picture above didn't give it away at all, did it?)

Athens amazes me. It is one of the oldest continually inhibited cities in our world. Known as the cradle of our civilization it is the birthplace of philosophy, democracy, and of course, the Olympics. Not to mention the strong influences on literature and the performing arts.

Which brings us to tonight's interesting little tidbit that I picked up along the way

Thespis of Icaria

Thespis, a Greek poet, is assumed to be the world's first on-stage actor in a written play, basically inventing theatre as we know it today. Thespis won the first documented competition for best tragedy in 534 BC and is now often credited as being the "inventor of tragedy" in the performing arts.

* By the way, Bug, Sis, and I did have a fabulous day wandering through Reiman Gardens in Ames. Bug was especially amazed by the new Dinosaur exhibit and Sis by the Butterfly House.