To Live is the Greatest Adventure
Updated: Aug 8, 2018
I always wanted to take a class in psychology, not so much to become a therapist but more to understand what makes people tick. Why do some people abuse others? Why do some refuse to respect certain people? Why do humans find it so easy to judge and be mean to one another?
As I’m writing this in my front yard on my lawn chair, I’m watching 3 hummingbirds fight over the feeders when there’s plenty of food for all.
What is it in all beings that makes us compete for what we want when we live in the world of plenty?
This winter my son is taking a class in neuroscience and I joked with him of how awesome it would be if I snuck into class with him. We laughed and joked and then I continued how we could be roomies and the adventures we would have. He stopped laughing after he saw how elaborate my plan was. He said “you know mom, there are university prerequisites to get into this class.”
The really cool thing is that with becoming a meditation teacher I’ve had ample opportunities to learn about the brain. And my favourite pastime is reading about neuroscience. I will never get a degree and I will never have to write a final exam. But I can learn about human behavior as a hobby. And that’s pretty awesome to my way of thinking.
I may never understand the misbehavior of the world, but slowly I can make sense of my won world and share my experiences along the way.
What I’m realizing is there are 2 kinds of people (possibly 3 if you count those who just coast thru life). First you have those who choose to live. I mean really live. They see an opportunity, an adventure and they aren’t content to watch someone else do it on TV.
And the second group would be those who live in fear. They can tell you 20 reasons why an adventure won’t work out, because they saw it fail on TV. They aren’t willing to step outside the box to take a chance and actually ‘live’ this life.
I’m not saying one group is better than the other. It depends on what brings you happiness.
My girlfriend sent me a quote a few weeks ago that went something like this.
“Some people choose to be truly happy and others reach the level of happiness that looks good in appearance.”
Do you see where I’m going with this?
I’ve also noticed the truly happy, those willing to take a risk, and fully live their lives have often, not always, but often experienced a huge loss. They realize that life will happen and we all die. The secret is they aren’t content living a ‘safe’ life inside the box because they will never have a story to tell that they didn’t see on TV.
I’m also seeing that the first group, are truly happy, they are more forgiving and are less judgey. Why is that?
I can see both kinds of people in myself. The excitement to try something new, to take a chance, to get off the couch and truly live. Just the thought of truly living brings me great happiness all the way to my core. But I still have this little voice inside me, the one that yells at me to get back in the box, how safe it is there, along with all the reasons why it won’t work. It tells me that if I just went back to the safety of the couch, no one will get hurt. But this voice saddens me. There is no exhilaration or life living on the couch.
Just last week my husband and I went hiking the Montana mountains with some good friends. Halfway thru our friends needed to get their tired little one home. Norm and I decided to continue the hike on our own to places unknown to us. Before our friends left us, they gave us a can of bear spray and told us how to use it. Let me tell you, a big part of me wanted to play it safe and wrap up the hike. But there was a much bigger part of me that wanted to venture on and explore the mountainous paths. The part of us that wanted to truly ‘live’ went on the adventure for a couple of hours and returned to the truck safe and sound without a bear sighting. I felt exhilarated and happy.
So if that exhilaration, the truly living, that content happy feeling makes me kinder to the people around me, well I’m all over that!
I want to have a zillion great adventures and countless stories to tell my grandchildren, because maybe just maybe I will be a role model to them of how to ‘live’ and how to be kinder to those around them.
I believe that if you’re willing to live your best life, off the couch, outside the safety of the box – you will realize that you can achieve anything in this life without competing with any other.
Not having to put another down or judge them in any way. And that would be one step closer to a kinder world.
To my way of thinking we have this one life right now. What are we going to do with it? I ask myself this question every day because it isn’t a fixed answer.
And remind myself that life is lived outside my comfort zone 😊
Listen to Tamina's audio version:
https://soundcloud.com/user-228569215/blog-to-live-is-the-greatest-adventuremp3