“It’s alarming how quickly people adjust to adventures when they are in one. You really have to work at being astonished by life.”

― Ellen Potter, The Kneebone Boy

As my son and daughters grow into their teenage years, story time comes less often.

So it seems appropriate that before we start reading a new book, I should mention the last one we read – The Kneebone Boy, by Ellen Potter.

This rather humorous story is told by one of three children (we don’t know who), two brothers and one sister. They are sent to stay with a relative in their painter father’s absence; find themselves horribly alone; have to fend off both maladroit and nasty folks; and end up in a most peculiar place where the legend of the Kneebone Boy permeates everything. Throughout the tale, there’s a lot of talk in the story of adventure and the children often go out of their way to “have an adventure.”

The curious thing about adventure is … how do you know when you’re on one?

Consider that for a moment. It might be easy to plan an adventure trip or seek out some special meaning for past events, but when you’re in the midst of an adventure it all seems quite … normal. The funny thing is that you often don’t see the adventure until you are back home, safely tucked in your bed.

So how do you know when you’re on an adventure?

Well, here are my ideas.

1. Plan an adventure. Without the commitment to do something different, adventures generally don’t happen.
2. Be open to adventure. Adventures may be just around the corner, if we’re willing to look for them. Here’s one way to tell how open you are.
3. Know more people who are having adventures. What are the people in your life doing with their spare time? If you’re hanging around a bunch of couch potatoes, chances are you are too. Consider giving your time to meet more people and see what opportunities that opens up.
4. Start with small adventures. Running a marathon may be a great adventure but so is running a 5K, or maybe just going for a run if you do it while practicing step 5.
5. Look around for adventure. There are so many interesting and wonderful things you can do right here and right now to connect with other people, think in new ways, or discover the unknown. Break your routine tomorrow to see what you see.

Which all leads back to the title of this post because life can truly be an adventure if we let it.

Started reading a new book aloud to my kids. As you might suspect, it’s an adventure story.