Adventure Ready

What are you doing between now and the day you die?

It’s reasonable to imagine that one day, we will die. Unless we’re Jesus and then we’ll just come back like he did today. They say. Or unless you’re Buddhist, and you’ll die, but no big deal. You’ll be back. Like Arnold says.

But for some of us, this is it. This is the ride. There’s now, and there’s a death ahead. And in between, this is it.

Every Choice is An Opportunity

I’m writing this on my back in my bed, with my laptop on my belly and drinking some Great Value pomegranate lemonade energy drink with frozen cranberries floating in it. When I’m done, I could go on an adventure, because my time isn’t specifically retired for anyone today, or for any specific project. I could eat anything for each meal, if I wanted.

I could put adventures in my mouth. I could walk off and try to find a street I’ve never seen, or grab my camera and find some very normal things caught in an interesting way. Or I can work on that book I keep ignoring to see if it’ll go away. Or I can scroll YouTube. It’s all there. Choices.

Except, One Day I’ll Die

And what if the day I die, the coolest thing I’d done was eat some black licorice and wrote a sentence that stuck in someone else’s head, which is cool, but you know. Not really an adventure.

But Chris, you want to protest, not every day is an adventure. You’ve gotta pay your bills or take out the trash or throw your bills in the trash (they’ll send more).

There’s adventure everywhere. Or there isn’t. You’re calling the shots.

Want to know what I had for breakfast yesterday? An apple. Only, it was covered with chocolate and caramel (thanks, Debbie!). That’s an adventure apple, if ever I did see one. You can still pay your bills or take out the trash, but at least have an adventure apple.

Look Up

I was sitting on a bench outside my house yesterday, looking at the nice cleaning lady as she wiped down our smudgy front doors on the factory building I live in, and I was saying my 14 or so words of Spanish to her, and thanking her for her work, because she does real work. I write things and try to sell people robots.

But see the guy in the pic above? He wanted to have a word. I suspect he was curious if I had something for him to eat. Now, I’ve always wanted to be a hedge wizard. You’ve seen my snowy beard, right? So, I really should have had crow food in my pockets. I didn’t. I had a camera, and a lens that could reach him.

As I’m writing this to you, I hear him out there cawing still. A day later. It’s like a free do over. Today’s my day to take him some nuts and seed (evidently they like grapes but I don’t have those - do you buy grapes regularly? I don’t. But nuts and seeds will do.

Maybe I can befriend his whole murder (that’s the term for a group of crows). And I hear crows are friends for life. And that’s an adventure I can have. In between writing things and trying to sell robots to skeptics.

What’s your adventure?

Chris…