the easy adventure or something like it...

      Last winter began what continues to resonate within us tonight and what will resonate within us tomorrow and the tomorrow after that.

The Easy Adventure is a story of what our lives look like when we eliminate subsidiary factors so that a focal point is in view.

     To us, the Easy Adventure is what happens when you remove the worry and the fear that often interferes with our living and allow yourself to embrace your life and the lives of those around you. It’s simple…

     The Easy Adventure began here in Portland and has since spanned the globe. It was in Juneau last summer, it was in the rolling hills of that old north state, it was across that little Atlantic pond and now we find it again here on the West coast.

     This winter, now spring we find ourselves moving at a slower pace than we did the last or at least this is where I find myself. I find myself feeling a little claustrophobic in this big city with her big buildings and her big ideas, so I sometimes escape to Sellwood. I escape to quiet evenings and quiet runs along a recently drenched pond with angry geese whose attitudes are too big for their own feathers, but I suppose they are Canadian. It has been quiet, yet good. We’ve all found ourselves in various states of reflection, resolving within our own selves what we believe about this and about that.

Quiet it may be, but it’s still an easy adventure...

     As you grow up it’s natural to abandon some of the things once taught to you, it’s the “simple” process of individuating yourself. It’s ironic though that sometimes, despite how far we may stray from our roots (because sometimes we do and sometimes we need to), we find ourselves among some of those very same ideals that are captured within our childhood photos.

     The idea of the easy adventure is by no means a novel idea that developed last winter, no; it was there in the beginning, something captured under that West Texas sun. I didn’t understand then what I understand about it now. Back then it was embarrassing.

     To the young and impressionable, everything matters. Whatever not deemed  “cool” is unwelcomed and adolescent girls know a thing or two about what being cool is, especially the ones from Texas, especially me. So, unfortunately it wasn’t until high school and college that I learned the truth to all these teachings and observations.

     When I was little and still to this day my grandma, Nana, always wore these “crazy” hats or “crazy” patriotic pants or gold shoes (which today may not be as uncommon as they were back then) or had these “crazy” ideas about this and about that. I didn’t realize then what I realize now, she was an easy adventurer long before I was born, long before Saryl, long before Ean, long before Jackson.

Unfortunately I don’t think I was the only one who didn’t realize this great wisdom from such an eccentric woman back then.

     I’ve never met anyone quite like her. She taught me about unconditional love not just for those that are near to you, but the love for a stranger, love for the outcast. Through her own life she taught me about being passionate about what you do, whatever that may be. She taught me how to live simply and contently.  She was a woman who chose family, whatever this constitutes, over traditional lifestyles. She was a woman whose entire life, in the time I knew her, was about giving to others. She lived off the most meager of incomes, an income that most would laugh at, yet continually gave to anyone in need. I can’t remember a time that she worried about how things would work out for her or how she’d be able to live should her income cease. Her worries surrounded the well being of others and their needs. She has always been a woman that would give you anything she had until she had nothing left to give and then, find a way to give you more. She didn’t care what others thought of her, she simply loved her life, loved her family and lived in this manner. She has continually been a woman devoted to what she believes and will continue to live in this manner. She always made lemonade out of bad lemons, finding optimism despite tragedies.

     She was an unnoticed easy adventurer from the beginning. She didn’t worry about the typical things we all find ourselves worrying about these days, she knew what was important to her and she lived accordingly.

     There’s a strange tension that lies between the past, and present, the once was and the now is. Images of water balloon fights and late night ghosts stories to the now age-old state. But, she is still the same Nana that she’s always been. She may not be present to every moment, but when she is she’s the image that I remember and the image that I will always remember.

     My final project for a psychology class last year was on Eric Ericson’s idea of “family generativity,” the art of leaving a legacy. It saddens me to see the manner in which so many live, the cyclical trap of American dreams, those that choose industry over people.  I wonder what they will have to say about their lives at the end. I wonder what the worth of it will be to them. Perhaps there is worth and gain, I just haven’t heard the benefits yet. Nana is not leaving behind anything materialist, except a handful of handmade jewelry from my grandfather. What she does leave is a vision, a vision of a life I hope to model after, a timeless legacy unable to be captured in some silly materialistic substance.

      For me and to you who know her, I hope we find her legacy inspiring. I hope we live in such a way that understands what she tried to teach us. I hope we live free of this everyday worry. I hope we live a life of love to all those around us. I hope we all live as easy adventurers. 

     There’s no way to force children or even adults to understand the significance and worth of something, you simply have to hope that one day they will come to an understanding and appreciation for that which they’ve known all along. I did. 

The Easy Adventure.