A start.
The first step.
Adventure.
Noun: An unusual, exciting or daring experience.
Escapades big or small can be an adventure. When I talk to other people I realise that so many of us over think or worry that we have to have a plan, a destination or an outcome - in life and in play. That to have an adventure must cost a lot in money and in time. Along with that looming fear of creating that ‘instagrammable’ moment. The build up of worry that people will see we aren’t doing enough, making enough, baking enough or being enough. Because let’s face it if we didn’t instagram it, did it even happen?
In a world where the majority of people I pass by in the street have their head looking down I am constantly reminded to look up. Not only is it safer, as I will be able to avoid the oncoming human missile walking absent-mindedly in a phone vortex towards me, but it’s also a window into the unusual, exciting and sometimes even daring. A window into adventure.
I was raised by parents who instilled a desire to roam, wander, learn and explore in me from the moment I could walk. They encouraged me to run, play, get messy, get lost, fall down and get back up again. They made life my playground.
”Work hard, play hard and enjoy yourself’ were words that were left ringing in my ears as I stepped out each day into the world of possibilities, until the day I left home. I am forever grateful.
It wasn’t until I had to put adult life skills into practice that I realised the world they had curated for me and the behaviour they had encouraged, I would have to continually fight for as I got older. Permanently remind myself to switch off and return to getting muddy, lost and windswept. I had to personally repeat;
“Work hard, play hard, ENJOY yourself”
So I decided to take the first step, to begin Roots in Routes; to work hard, play hard and enjoy myself along the way.
I will, hand on heart, admit to capturing that instagram moment - sometimes. I love a photo. Yet there are all the beautiful moments that no one else gets to see, that I live in rather than record. Unusual, exciting or daring can mean something different to everybody. Adventure is yours, to do in your own way.
So play a game with me, take a step outside, without a plan, without an agenda, without an outcome and just see what happens.
Where will you go, end up, see, or do? I don’t know - you shouldn’t know. If you do stop, rewind, erase the plan and start again…one step.
#justsaying Mother Nature will rarely cooperate. If it’s raining prepare to gear up and simply go with it.
Note for the doubters -I have kids, two. A dog, one. A hubby-to-be. A full-time job. This activity can be done with all or none of these, in as much or as little time as you desire.
I would love to see what you end up doing but feel it is counter intuitive to ask you to instagram tag me…so I’m not going to!
To my own standards and against my own happy-ometer I am doing, making and being enough. Please don’t judge me or yourself on mine or anyone else’s standards, only on what makes you happy.
Oh, and don’t forget;
Work hard, play hard, enjoy yourself.
Love G x