I'm Going on an Adventure!

I think back to a conversation I had with an ex boyfriend when he asked me why I broke our relationship off. I said:

"Because when we talk all I want is 'storytime' and all you want is deep philosophical debate. I can't speak that language."

Lizzy Bennett: "Mr. Collins I am perfectly serious! You could not make me happy and I'm convinced I'm the last woman in the world who could make you happy."

~

I love to listen to stories and to tell them. Often when I babysat children in high school, I'd have us sit in a circle and go around telling stories. I enjoyed hearing little Levi and Abigail make up stories usually involving a witch and a castle that didn't really make sense. But when I started to rattle off stories about elves and fairies and evil giants and orcs, they would stare at me in awe soaking in my every word.

Whenever Abigail would see me at church she'd come up and sheepishly ask me if I could tell her a story. Unfortunately for her, my stories were usually paraphrases of something I'd recently read or tales I made up in advance. I'm not great at on-the-spot storyweaving.

~

I was a writer before I ever thought about becoming an artist.

 My mom told me that after my first day of Kindergarten, I came home off the bus, put my hands on my hips, and with a scowl said, "They did not teach me how to read and write!!"

I desired so badly to learn. I wanted to eat and breathe fictional stories.

Later, I started drawing mainly to illustrate my own short stories or scenes from my favorite books. And still today, almost all of my art has some sort of background story. Often when I sit down to "be creative" (and trust me, even though I was an art major, those times aren't that often), I usually choose to write something rather than painting/drawing/etc.

To me, there is no difference between story and art. 

Painting with words.

I can paint a scene much more effectively in writing than pigment.

Most of the time, if I try to paint a setting from my head or memory, it looks nothing like it when I finish! I'm an artist, not a magician. Artist's create, but it doesn't mean they are usually successful at it. :) The joy, the art, is in working with my hands. (I could rant here for awhile about how it annoys me when people hear I'm an art major and they get this "artist aura" in their head about me and my capabilities that just isn't true...but I digress).

It wasn't really until the latter part of my college years that God called me to delve deeply into why I resonate so much with certain stories. Plus, my closest friends loved to analyze all movies and storylines on a spiritual level and I caught on. It fascinated me. And it helped me understand myself more...who I really am and long for.

~

At the beginning of the summer I started watching BBC's Robin Hood on Netflix with my brother and soon became hooked. However, with only three seasons we flew through the episodes and now I'm mourning the end. :(
(Although the first few episodes were ridiculously cheesy and full of poor effects, if you are considering the show, I would highly recommend it. I promise it gets much better if you power through those first few. ;) I will warn you though, they pull quite a few "Downton's" - killing off characters as an easy way to end plots or if the actor decides to leave the show. It made me very angry at the time...but in hindsight...I think it added deeper levels to the storyline, more realistic)

Man oh man, I got so attached to the characters. I related so much to beautiful yet fierce Marian. Then there was the dark and handsome bad-boy, Sir Gisborne, who captured me with his sporadic acts of kindness that gave hope of his underlying goodness (lol, yea...). And of course brave and honorable Robin...always the hero, sacrificing his own safety time and again to protect and provide for the people he cared about.

You can see how I could find many spiritual undertones in a series like that. :)

"Thanks to you, I die proud......and free."

"The greatest adventure is yet to come."

~

We were recently joking with a friend who was going to have a job interview the next day. We told him that when he walks out the door to go to the interview, he should raise his fist and give his best Bilbo impersonation:

"I'm going on an adventure!"

Our friend has a great narrator voice so we wanted him to say it for us, but he refused. lol

I wonder how much more positively I could embrace the future if I wake up each morning and say "I'm going on an adventure!" I have been especially reminding myself of this lately as I transition into a new phase...that might be lonely and not be so pleasant at times. I just moved into my apartment and lets just say I've been acting less-than-grown-up about the whole "living alone in an unfamiliar place" thing.

During college I got into the habit of saying "it's always always an adventure" whenever life would get chaotic...because I have learned that no matter the circumstance, something can be learned from it and how it fits into the grand scheme of things. 

So get out there and play your irreplaceable role in an epic story.