“Some people have their marathons to train for, their mountains to climb, their planes to jump out of. I have my own list, and it is about time to begin.”

I wrote that almost a decade ago. Oh, fleeting time…

I must have been a bit jealous of those who appeared to live more adventurously than I. At that time, my daily adventure was navigating a middle school classroom that shuttled 150 students through it each day.

I didn’t need to be jealous of marathoners, mountain climbers, and skydivers. I was nurturing lives that someday may achieve a life able to afford the time to do those things.

Nurturing lives, even one life, is a noble adventure in itself, isn’t it?

I’ve had time to reflect. Time to consider again the path that was laid out before me for a good part of my life. I do have some real regrets but I also have many many fond memories. And most of those memories are of the uneventful yet extraordinary conversations I had with ordinary people about their extraordinary future hopes.

I’ve discovered that our future is almost never as extraordinary as we dreamed. If we cling to the dream, as I did painfully too many times in my past, we miss the deep value of the moment we are living in. Every moment can be extraordinary if seen as an adventure. Every moment requires the same risk as one jumping from a plane with a parachute. Every ordinary moment has infinite value.

If I am to be jealous of anyone, let me be jealous of those who live unseen lives living adventurously in faithfulness, caring for the least of these, sharing tears and smiles, joys and pains, along the path laid simply before them.

That indeed is where true adventures are formed. Where true greatness is found.