The Greatest Adventure is What Lies Ahead…

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”          – Andre Gide

Good day to you ladies and gents.  This post gets into the substance of my blog, a topic with which I seem to be preoccupied and wrestle.  I think it is one of the yearnings of our souls, and though it takes many shapes, we all one way or another desire for adventure.

I found the above quote by the French author Audre Gide and feel that it has what you can call “replay value” (all you gamers know what I mean).  You can read it over and over and see that it is rather resistant to tarnish, instead triggering tangents from its imagery or inspiration that it evokes.  I think a good quote makes ya think…I think this one does!

Quite literally,I will be leaving the shore of the east coast United States and traveling to a new one.  On June 30th I depart for Peru and start the journey to the northwestern city of Trujillo.  There I will be volunteering through an orphanage (check out the side bar for the link).  For the first six months I will be helping in their water project, aiding the community north of the orphanage in getting clean water.  Then, for the following two months I will be volunteering with the children it what will be their Summer Programs (January and February!)

This is an exciting opportunity, one that I have not really been able to sufficiently wrap my mind around.   I’ll be giving of myself for eight months, in a land that is very foreign to me, and truly having an adventure!

However, I can’t feign being some sort of adventure maniac, blindly peering into the future and having no reservations.  No, I expect, and prefer, this to be a challenging and stretching experience, and the first leg of that is taking that leap of faith and starting.  I equate these times in life to an oncoming wave, both daunting and breathtaking, and I want to be engulfed.

For those of you who believe in God, I can take all the prayer I can get.  I trust in Him, and I’ll need Him for this experience to have the impact on others and myself that it is intended to have.  Please keep in touch, through this blog, facebook, what have you!

And I wanted to offer some encouragement.  Like I said, adventure takes many forms.  It doesn’t have to be a trip to a different country, or an extreme event.  It can be a relationship, a new way approach to the day’s challenges, a personal undertaking.  Adventure is in many ways a mindset, one that you have to embark on.

If you know me, then you know I am a big Tolkien fan, and you will probably get a lot of Middle-Earthien referencies here.  Here goes my first!

I leave you with a video from the animated version of “The Hobbit”.  This film is a respectable cartoon version of the classic Lord of the Rings prequel, and it includes many original songs.  One is the title tune “The Greatest Adventure”.  The first few times you watch this you might have a hard time containing your suppressed laughter, since it can be seen as corny.  But give the incredibly profound lyrics a chance, and see what they mean for you.

“The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.
The chances, the changes are all yours to make.
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.”