Adventures with Jesus…and Peter Pan

On Monday morning, I prayed that God would give me an adventure.

I asked Him to show me who I could talk to that day, or how I might see an opportunity to connect with somebody, or bless someone close to me. As I prayed, the thought came to me that since I was taking Anika to her theatre class at the Forks, I would have the chance to meet all kinds of interesting people. There are always parents sitting around, waiting for a whole hour while their kids are in class. Surely there would be someone there just waiting for some kind of awesome conversation.

I was happily anticipating it.

So, we drove off to the Forks, Anika ran off to her class, and I sat down to wait with Kaylia in a large, open area where a number of other parents had already gotten settled. Everyone was kind of busy, so I started reading to Kaylia, quite confident that before too long, something special would happen.

Kaylia is obsessed with Peter Pan these days.

I found a used copy of a kids’ chapter book version of the story, and we’ve been reading and rereading it every single day for a week, so this was her obvious choice of reading material that day during Anika’s class.

As I sat there reading, the most unusual thing began to happen – I began to collect children.

Little boys wandered over, and snuggled in close to hear the story. A baby toddled over to me, dragging her mom’s water bottle behind her, and beamed every time I paid attention to her. Kids’ moms came over to watch how intently their kids were listening to the story, expressing their amazement that these active little boys could sit so still for a chapter book.

Sadly…it was Peter Pan, with many details about pirates, and plenty of politically incorrect references to “Indians”. It’s not like it was an uplifting story in any way.

And I never got my inspiring conversation with any of the moms there.

But as the baby with the water bottle gave me a huge, toothy grin, and a boy with incredibly curly hair leaned against me as if he’d known me his whole life, it suddenly became clear to me: This was the moment of blessing – for them and for me!

I may never see those children again, but I had the opportunity to give them my time and attention. I spread a little love that morning. It didn’t look the way I expected it to, and yet I felt a strong sense that these little children needed as much love as any adult, and are no less important because they are presently smaller in size. And I remembered all over again that sometimes, we love others by loving their children.

So I never did anything huge or inspiring, and Jesus is never mentioned in the story of Peter Pan, but I felt like I had the little adventure I’d prayed for that morning. Kaylia beamed with pleasure at her new “friends” enjoying the story with her, and as she snuggled against me on one side, and a little boy leaned in for a better view of Captain Hook’s picture, I decided that unexpected adventures are the best kind of all.;)

May you enjoy your Wednesday,and experience an adventure or two, as well!

Not Really Adventurous

I’m not really very adventurous. Not much of a daredevil. It’s just not my thing. But every once in a while, I’m driven to do something a little bit exciting.

It always has to do with something other than the excitement, however.

For example.

Parasailing was all about feeling like a bird in the sky, above the ocean, surrounded by blue.

And climbing a 126 foot Mayan pyramid? That was about looking out over the green, lush jungle from the very top, watching the birds flying around beneath me.

I don’t do anything for the rush in my stomach, or the desire to do something slightly dangerous. I do it because I want to see the trees, the ocean, and the birds better! That’s a dangerous confession to make publicly, because Ben could easily use it against me. He tried to convince me to go skydiving with him once, but I was completely uninterested.

However. If he would tell me all about what it was like to float through the sky, let’s say at sunset, perhaps, and see all the green fields spread out beneath him, and threw in some descriptions about clouds and/or birds? You’d probably soon be reading a post about me skydiving.

Who knows.

It’s all about the pretty stuff.

P.S. Ben read that last bit over my shoulder, and got really excited about the possibility of me going skydiving. I still don’t think it’s likely to happen, but if it ever does, you know why I’ll be doing it!

The Life That is Waiting For Us

Have you ever had an experience that turned out completely differently in real life than you imagined it would?

I love to imagine how things will turn out, but in my mind, everything ends up looking really perfect. Kind of like in movies, when the sun is shining and everyone looks unrealistically beautiful, and music plays in the background. “Life” in movies happens according to a script.

(Why is there no music playing in the background of my life? Or better yet, can the whole thing just become a musical? I would love for my life to be a musical.)

So we dream up these perfect moments, and plan great adventures, and we imagine how they will turn out, and then….they don’t turn out that way at all.

And we are left with two choices:

1) Try to salvage the pieces of our broken daydreams, and attempt to force everyone involved to get with our plan.

2) Chuck the plan and go with real life, realizing that what is real and right before us is, in most ways, better than the daydream.

This choice was before me on Sunday afternoon.

I’d been waiting for weeks to go to Look-Out with our family. It is a Fall Tradition. And the sun must shine, the colors must be beautiful, everyone must be happy, and I must get fantastic pictures.

Big Problem: The camera battery that I thought was charged….was not. As I took the first picture on Sunday afternoon, my camera died.

That was the end of beautiful fall pictures. And the sun wasn’t shining.

I was quite disappointed. But…the colors were still beautiful, and everyone was happy, and Ben has a Blackberry! So we carried on as best we could.

And you know what? It was pretty fantastic. My cute family snacked on apples, and we enjoyed the view. I think I enjoyed it even more, because I had the time to really see it – I wasn’t looking through a view finder the entire time. It was strangely freeing.

The next day, I came across this quote:

“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Joseph Campbell

Daydreaming and scheming up fun plans is good and all, but I never want it to keep me from missing out on what is actually happening around me.

Have you ever been surprised by real life, and had to give up your perfect little plan?