2017... ADVENTURE

I have always loved Hannah's sense of adventure.... she is FEARLESS when it comes to facing life and it's challenges.  Yesterday, on the eve of a new year, we took the girls to explore the same canyon that Craig spent his childhood exploring.  Enjoying the outdoors, investigating everything that caught our attention, even the littlest details deserved our thought.  Finding the perfect "walking sticks" to lean on when the path was a challenge, tracking bunnies and deer by the foot prints they left behind in the dirt, poking around to try to guess what made a cave-like shelter, coming upon a mass of gopher tunnels, searching for seashells in the canyon walls, because what is now great plains prairie was actually once an ocean leaving shells behind to be discovered, watching the train speed by and counting the cars, guessing how old the trees are, and even talking about the calvary that once drove through this same land as it sits on the Fort McPherson Trail.  All in all, just following the girls lead and enjoying their laughter as they were on their grand adventure.

All this got me to pondering 2017 and what it may hold for our family.  While I do not know the answer to that question, I do know that I want to face it with the same sense of adventure that the girls have.  Life drags us down, and we are left with the massive weight of everything it throws at us. This year, however, I want to throw off the shackles of negativity that all that stress leaves us with and take a leap of faith to see where this life and God's plan is going to take us.  I want to embrace the journey and not just focus solely on the destination, taking in the detours as blessings and not just inconveniences.  No, I'm not talking about heading off to Bora Bora or something crazy; I just want to take our life back and enjoy the simplicity of generations past.

Modern life has gotten chaotic and busy for the sake of "busyness" and that is something I no longer want to participate in on any level.  That doesn't strengthen our family nor does it drive us closer to God.  On the contrary, it divides and conquers.  As I think about my grandparents and their generation, I realize all we've lost in our own generation.... the sense of community, the face to face relationships, helping each other rather than competing with everyone.... SIMPLICITY.  Personally, I have too much to distract me in my daily life; too much to keep me unnecessarily busy.  So, this year, I'm going to weed out what isn't important or needed.  I'm going to shake off the shackles of what I'm "suppose" to keep/have/be, and instead tailor our home and life to one of SIMPLE JOY.  This is not something that will be accomplished overnight.  It's the adventure I've decided to take in 2017; only instead of heading SOMEPLACE, I'm heading back... back to our roots, our foundation.  Back to a time when life was actually good and joy was abundant, found in the simple things that you may miss if you don't take a moment to actually notice the detail.  The smell of coffee wafting through the air, the chirping of a happy guinea pig, the sound of cats racing through the living room, the laughter of my daughters ringing throughout our entire home... the little details of life that we miss because we are too busy "taking care of business", whatever that business may be.  I'm going to stop taking the path of least resistance and start looking for the fun of finding a new way to face the challenges life presents us with :)