Life is an adventure and viewed best when we take the scenic route. Recently, my life’s adventure took me to a storytelling event created and hosted by friend, author, and fellow adventurer Carol Mossa. I had the pleasure to be among ten people in the community to share stories from the heart about coming home. It was a bit of an adventure in itself and it was magical.

Travel has been on my mind a lot lately. I live in a constant state of wanderlust and as my next travel adventure begins to formulate in my heart and mind, it’s no accident the story I told is about travel and a desire for adventure. Over the next few months as my travel plans come together, I’ll share them with you here. Meanwhile, here is my story. I hope you enjoy it!

Thursday is my mother’s birthday – she’ll be 87, a very active 87. I’ve come to believe though, that my mother had a secret desire for travel and adventure. My father, not so much, so they did very little travel over the years.

I was one of 5 children growing up in an age when giving your kids positive reinforcement meant they’d get a ‘big head’ so most of the attention I remember getting was for things I screwed up and did wrong.

Yet, everyone so often, on a warm summer Sunday afternoon…after she and I had finished cleaning the dishes, mom would lean in to me and say softly, “Get in the car. We’re going for a ride.”

We’d leave my dad behind with four other kids. I still have no idea if he even knew we’d left the house. Mom and I would climb into the big blue Impala, AP813 on the license plate. I’d be in the front passenger seat, we didn’t think about seat belts in those days, and she’d slide in behind the wheel, put the car in gear and back out of the driveway. We’d head from our suburban ranch house out into the ‘back roads or winding roads’ as we called them.

We were never far from home, not more than 15 miles I’d imagine, but she’d drive around for couple of hours before heading back. I don’t recall what we talked about, if we even talked at all. But I remember those Sunday adventures fondly and later in life I’d come to see the lessons, the blessings, the gifts of those Sunday drives.

I learned to notice. To be observant. To be present. To see the beauty that is all around me. As we drove along, my mother would point out everything that caught her attention. It may have been a grove of trees or the way the trees cast their shady shadows across the road. She grew up on a farm and always knew just which crops were growing in the field we’d pass and how long before the corn would be ready to pick. We drove past ponds and cow pastures…I’d hold my nose and she’d take a deep breath and say, “smell that good country air.” I recall farm stands selling ripe red tomatoes; sweet, juicy strawberries and fresh cut zinnias, and storm clouds forming in the distance. When there was a rain shower, we’d leave the windows down and feel the rain drops on our faces. I still love that.

I learned to trust my internal compass. As we drove along, she’d look for an unfamiliar road and say to me, “We’ve never been down here before, let’s see where it takes us.” And, of course we did…this was her adventure. Once, when I was about 12, old enough to try to figure out how she knew where she was, I recall going down one of those unfamiliar roads asking, “What if we get lost?” She drove on smiling and said, “We’re never lost. We’ll just go back the way we came.” Well. Of course. I don’t believe we can go back in life, yet over the years, I’ve come to see that as I venture down unfamiliar roads in life and feel a bit lost, I can always go back to my inner wise self and trust my internal guidance system. When I do, I am never lost for very long and I’m always guided to the next right turn. A lesson I’ve come home to time and time again.

And, lastly, she taught me that life is what you make it. To always take the scenic route. That, you don’t have to go far to have an adventure. But, you DO have to be willing to travel a road you’ve never been down before.

Peace