Graduation

Well as you move through life's little steps it is much like graduating. You take each new challenge or adventure and start taking one step at a time. I have had lots and lots of challenges and adventures. I find that how I define that particular situation immediately determines how I will attack it.

As a challenge, it is instantly a struggle, uphill battle, migraine causing event. Doesn't it seem hard just to say the word "challenge"? Even the industrial world has eliminated the word for more palatable phrases like "improvement opportunities" or "ah ha moments". Those don't sound as daunting, that is a fact. Truth be known, I don't like to think on this side of my brain at all.

But I live in the world of intentional resistance. I like adventures. I have visions of a trip to the airport in a speeding taxi, discovering new foods that have grown in old containers in the back of the fridge, travels to third world countries with nothing but a duffel bag and three words of Telugu, travels to ANY country that does not use electricity, getting lost in the town where I live! Lots of events all take on a fun and positive bent when I label them as adventures!

Some of my best adventures happen without leaving the house. You know the kind. You are certain you put something in a spot and alas it has gone missing. Where did it go? Who took it there? No one but you is home but "someone" has taken the item to a new and exciting location! It is like that missing sock, the one you put in the washer that never makes it to the dryer? Where did it go?! As an aside, I keep all those odd bad boys and eventually I have a new pair:-) That will show those run away garments.

I take other more personal events and apply the same adventure mentality. A parents memory loss, in a way sad, and yet there is always an unexpected humor in the ease at which they enjoy their day. Happy to play BINGO and sneak cookies from their dresser with a big smile over these simple pleasures. A child's behavioral issues, which are serious and in need of discipline, but attached to that are earnest prayers asking God to help him to do really well so he can live until Friday and get all his things back, but especially Barney. Or the sorrow of loss that is so tragic, yet it revives hours and hours of joyful memories. These become cherished adventures.

I could get angry, depressed, frustrated, weighed down with sorrow, but I choose not to give life to the negative. I move through those normal emotions. I look at the other side. I know that bad things happen, but I believe that good comes from the crisis. I cling to that. Prosper not harm, very important and reliable words. Because I know who leads I can relax and follow, and enjoy the adventures every day.