posted on July 10, 2011 21:02
We said goodbye to one of our baristas this week. Marc Dulang set out on a journey of discovery. He flew to Peru on a trip of undetermined length and with no itinerary. To discover, to share, to learn, and to see. It could be the experience of a lifetime or it could be just the first of many experiences.
I found myself envious. This was the sort of adventure only young people can have. Every corner is a new sight, and every road has a fork with the opportunity to take what Frost called the one less traveled by. I envied the things he would see, the friends he would make, and the lessons (some painful) he would learn.
I thought that this is what youth was for; as it bought to mind my own youthful adventures. I smiled, wished him well and gave him a hug as we said our goodbyes.
As he left, I noticed the greeting cards by Selia Qynn that we keep on display by our front door. They're a quirky yet wonderful collection almost entirely made from pictures she has taken in her own city-sized backyard here in Houston. I marveled at just how much beauty she has not only seen but shared from one very familiar garden, a place she inhabits every day.
That brought me a thought that turned my envy into joy. Our adventures are not so much in our travels as in our experiences and we can experience every day.
We build into our lives routines which somehow we make stronger as we grow older. Those routines help us to navigate daily life and meet our obligations. We can use those routines to bring order but it is in the fact that we need order that is the clue to the possibility in every new day.
If we let ourselves see it; everyday can be a journey to a new adventure. Around every corner is a new sight (if we will turn the other way), every stranger a potential new friend (if we will only meet them), new lessons abound (if we will let ourselves learn them). There is always another road less traveled for us to explore. As Selia has shown us, there is always a new way to see the familiar.
Have a good day and then have another. That is the adventure of life.