Embrace the Adventure

This summer is unlike any I’ve had for quite a while. It is the first summer that I have gone into unemployed in 5 years for one and it is the first summer that I have gone into without my sister at my side. It is the first summer and time ever that I have planned a trip without my family, and that is taking me to another continent. I’m scared and nervous and unsure. I am a type A person. I like plans that are made months in advance. I like due dates and planners and lists. Being spontaneous isn’t always my cup of tea.

So this summer is stretching…to say the least.

I got a card from my mom today that said:

“Grace and Peace to you…Embrace the Adventure. You are Loved.”

It made me pause, take a deep breath and think. When I decided to go to the UK this summer I knew that it meant sacrifices in other areas. But it is still what I want. I am so excited for the shopping, the food, the site seeing and the energy of going abroad. I am so ready to check items off my list of things to do and see.  

But adventure isn’t just the good times. It isn’t just the moments that grab your breath and make you laugh and jump up and down in pure happiness.

It’s also about the preparation, the sacrifices and the fear. It’s about the moments that make you clench your fists and lose some tears but fight for your dream. When you have toil attached to your adventure it becomes rounded, healthy, and real.

So we embrace the adventure. We throw our arms around the good and the bad and pull them close because they will become a part of our journey and story.

Reader, I want to challenge you.

I want to challenge you to know that you are loved

To know the good and the bad are intertwined.

To know that big risk leads to big rewards.

And to embrace the adventures that lie before you.