Hold Tight To Local Adventures

It's funny how wild imaginations of grand adventure can sometimes interfere with so much opportunity that is already in our hands.  As soon as we see what others in other places are doing, we think perhaps they are living a life more fulfilling than our own.  Their videos and photographs are compelling.  Their stories sound so enticing.  So we seek those experiences for ourselves.  We imagine visiting the places they've been, seeing the vistas, riding the routes, camping in wild places, and overcoming the challenges.  We'll come back with our own amazing stories, we say.  We lay aside what we previously held as precious so we can pursue the vision in our imagination.

We prepare, and we plan.  Our current gear will not suffice.  The grand adventures of our imagination require bicycles, camping gear, clothing, and what-nots that are not required for our local pleasures.  So we sell off a few things to help fund and equip this rare objective.  We are unfamiliar with those distant places, and spend our free time reading travel accounts, learning new skills, and scrutinizing maps.  The logistics required to make the most of what the imagination promises takes significant time.  It is time invested well, we say.  Look at what we'll be able to do!  Those hours of free time once used for local exploration, and making homegrown adventures is lost to something beyond.  Suddenly, we find ourselves unprepared and unable to do what once came so naturally, and brought so much joy.

Sometimes our lofty dreams create a context that is unrealistic and intangible.  Most of us do not have the gumption to completely upend our lives.  Those who do, will create a new context.  For the rest of us, maybe we should not lose sight of our current sense of our place, our current commitments, and how we live our lives.  We should think, perhaps, in terms of anchoring our bicycle adventures within the practical limits of our situation.  The wisest investment is there.  If those grand adventures come our way, so much the better.  But let us never let go of the precious gifts that we already have for those temporal, unsustainable visions...how ever enticing.