Sense of Adventure

Today went by rather quickly. I woke up, ate, went for a walk, went online and before I knew it, my day is over.

When my dad came back from work, he asked me to grab a ladder from my cousin who lives a couple of houses up the street. I was wondering what he was gonna do with it. I later found out that he wanted to climb onto the roof and reconnect the phone wires on his own. He didn't use the ladder but climbed out from my bedroom's window instead.

It was pretty nerve-wrecking to watch him risk his life. I didn't dare to say much when he was out on the roof in case I might break his concentration. I was there to watch and provide assistance when necessary.

So many things passed my mind including plans to save myself in case I fall (I was imagining myself being the one on the roof) but the most notable and attention-worthy though is the thought about courage and daring, doing something risky in life. Thoughts of how people get yelled at all the time here for attempting to do something risky (they are labeled stupid) passed my mind; I thought of how most of us are conditioned not to do daring things, I thought of how I was constantly struggling to dare myself to do things and break off from my past conditioning (that little sense of adventure in me), I thought of the little naughty but brave kids in the village who just run around and get into trouble at the end of the day, and I thought of how important it is to just trust your guts and the body and not so much the mind, then I reflected on my driving skills - my dad told me not to think and worry too much and let my subconscious mind do the driving (but don't I need practice before I can do that?).

Coincidentally, when I checked my mail just now, the topic in Oprah's email newsletter was on having a sense of adventure and breaking free from the rut. I thought the last paragraph of the article pretty much sums everything up.

"Being adventurous, it turns out, is a little like being a good dancer: Most of us think we aren't, and the more we're convinced of this, the less hope we have of loosening up and getting better. But if we would open up a little—look at what we might do instead of what we're certain we can't—we'd discover something: "Hahn wrote that every human being has within himself a grand passion," says James. And that passion—that's where a sense of adventure really takes you. "

I guess what I gained today from my free contemplation was the understanding that there is most of us have a strong sense of adventure that have been weakened over the years by societal upbringing. Nevertheless, I am thankful for my pluck to do things even though I am afraid of them. I am grateful for my sense of adventure. I pray that others will find that sense of adventure in themselves and harness them to the fullest.