Sand, sand, and yet more sand! Am I walking along Yarmouth beach, the best beach I know?  No, I am anticipating travelling through the deserts of Namibia with my daughter at the wheel of a truck, driving me along bumpy roads to who knows where! On the day this ‘Viewpoint’ goes to press, that is where I shall be. What an adventure!

 

I am not a naturally adventurous person but there is something about the word ‘adventure’ that grabs all of us. We will have enjoyed stories and films which can have inspired us to be adventurers too. Then the dream dies

 

Children’s minds are often full of imagination and adventure; the thoughts that anything is possible. When do we become too grown-up for dreams and adventures? Is it a need for security, comfort; an awareness of responsibility? Have we been encouraged to be ‘sensible’ and ‘realistic’?

 

The adventure in Namibia is happening purely because my daughter is teaching there and I really want to see her again. I am excited but one or two hiccups have occurred in the planning which have caused the trip to take on an uncertain look and momentarily make us ask the question, ‘Should we be doing this?’

 

 We had arranged to visit friends in Cape Town for ten days, but they are currently in England and one of them is awaiting a medical procedure. They will certainly not be in Cape Town when we get there. My sister, who was coming with us, has been recently diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. So, she cannot come. Adventures are not always plain sailing

 

When adventure opportunities, something out of the ordinary, come our way, however seemingly small or insignificant, we have a choice whether to grasp them or let them pass by. I have recently been inspired by a book, ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho, which is the story of a young Andalusian shepherd boy. He follows his dreams to find his ‘treasure’, treasure being anything that transforms lives and changes them for ever. Early in his journey, the boy is robbed of all his money. The question is whether he should go back home and forget his mission. How can he possibly do it now? How will he be able to manage, with no money? He realises he has to choose between thinking of himself as the poor victim of a thief or as an adventurer in quest of his treasure. “I am an adventurer looking for treasure,” he decides

 

When Jesus called Peter away from his job as a fisherman, all he had ever known, Peter began an adventure that would change his life. He would never be the same again. He chose to leave what he knew and follow someone who would lead him to his ‘treasure’

 

Are you open to the possibility of adventure being part of your life? The boy in the story knew that if he didn’t step out on the journey he would always be wondering what might have happened and what his treasure might have been

 

Namibia, here I come!