What constitutes an adventure?
Where does this adventure begin? It begins with letting go.Goodbye to knowing the geography and history of Towson, Baltimore, Maryland,the U.S. Goodbye to knowing routines for work, for entertainment, for relationships. Goodbye to physical possessions like cars and houses and furniture. And, goodbye to friends and family that won’t be seen again for sometime.
It all leads to discovering different geography, history, entertainments, possessions, and friends. A conference presenter once said: “To learn something new, we must be willing to sacrifice at least a small amount of our self-esteem.” We cannot maintain mastery and acquire new skills, we must open ourselves up to being vulnerable, unsure, unskilled. We must let go of the rope we are holding to swing out to the next rope we grab; that’s how you move forward.
We have let go of the rope. The smallest of tasks have presented situations of pure confusion. It was among the easiest of trips in Towson to go to the White Marsh Ikea. Fifteen minutes away; take the beltway to the White Marsh exit, park on the left of the parking lot, go in through the exit. No problem. As we left Towson, we also left our King-sized bed thinking it probably would not fit in any rental properties we would be taking. We had a vague idea of going to Ikea to get a bed frame and then ordering a ‘bed in a box’ online. It seemed easy enough. From our temporary apartment to the closest Ikea it was a distance of about 9 miles depending on route. This is nothing for a person with a car, but we don’t have a car any more. A 25 minute car trip via the Underground is an hour and 15 minutes. No problem, we have time, we are up for figuring out which train to take and which direction. Walking from the station is not a problem – we like to walk.
We arrive at the huge Wembly Ikea. Hours are spent looking at the various items we might need, and which bed frame option might work best. The afternoon is spent looking, as it was still to soon to actually buy a bed because we still had not rented a long-term place in London yet. The trip to Ikea was research. It is getting dark and time to return to our apartment. It is 4 o’clock in the afternoon. And, it is raining; buckets. We re-plan the route back, less walking now would be good. The bus route is less walking, so we decide to take the bus. Ah, but which bus stop? This is where knowing the geography is helpful. We get to the bus stop in front of Ikea, but it is not for the bus we need. The one we need, is completely on the other side. We begin to walk that direction, in the pouring rain, when a car hits a water-filled pothole right next to the sidewalk, we are both drenched. As you might imagine, this is now an adventure that was not funny at the time, it is funnier now (I hope). We finally find the correct bus, going the correct direction and board with lots of other folks sharing the similar experience of being wet, tired, and completely over-dressed for a hot, steamy bus; at least they knew where they were going.
We return to our apartment soaked, tired and hungry. We both change into our one other pair of pants and dry socks. We are now just tired and hungry and one of us, me, unwilling to walk far for dinner. We find there is a Sicilian restaurant across the street with empty tables. We decide to try it. What is the worst that can happen? Bad food, bad wine, bad service. None of this happened. The service is very good, the wine is good and the food is fabulous; right across the street. We have found one of the best restaurants ever because a trip to Ikea ended up being a wet, exhausting mess. As it turns out, we found a bed frame that we both very much like right on our own High Road. Free delivery with no problem of when and where.
Months ago, as we looked forward to making this move, we anticipated adventures like exploring Stonehenge, taking tours of castles, traveling to other cities and towns in the UK and Europe – did I think going to Ikea would be an adventure? No; that’s the thing with adventures; they are hiding everywhere, even in plain sight. We are still ‘up for the adventure’ of living in London, knowing now that there is going to be a lot of it, and that most likely it will turn out to be worth it. We are still reaching for the next rope which is my current definition of ‘adventure’.