Breakfast is always a treat, and it's not the food, though that's important. The treat is the blessing of the start of a new day. The blessing is the invitation to join in an adventure. What's going to happen? Who will be there? Will there be a big surprise? Each new day brings a renewed vigor, an opening and an excitement if we're open to it. There's going to be a party just over that hill, and I'm invited.
 Everyday is a road to fascinating discoveries even if the road has potholes and traffic signs that are always the same. Even if the hills we climb and the scenes on the other side are the same day after day it's an adventure because we can never know for sure what we will find in subtle experiences of ourselves. No matter that it's always bacon and eggs, a wedge of grapefruit, coffee and a slice of toast with marmalade, what are we finding in ourselves? Are we giving attention to the feel of the toast, the crunch, the lingering sweetness of the marmalade, the sustained warmth of the coffee? Are we aware of our jaw muscles working? Do we chew forty times before swallowing and give attention to the sensations of food going down our esophagus? Or are we remaining unaware by reading the newspaper, worrying about business, having animated discussions about world affairs? How still and in the moment can we be? How easily do we register subtle changes in our experiences of ourselves from one day to the next?
Getting out of bed, doing whatever toiletry we do at the start of a day are all part of the hill we climb to our first nurturance that sustains us if we but recognize it. Is this path always the same? It often is. This is called routine with nothing new in it. Most routines, if used long enough, become boring unless the person is willing to allow the mundane to be an adventure into his/her own subtleties—what am I learning about myself?
An adventure has exploration and experimentation as part of its definition—an adventure is romance in its purest form. So awakening every morning and going over the hill to breakfast is awakening into the spirit of adventure. What will I discover or perhaps rediscover about myself today? Will I have the courage to experiment with new thinking? Can I allow my life to be a romance today?
In workshops and private sessions I've met many people who go over the hill to breakfast and just as many who languish in the mundane. I remember an elderly woman who declared in a session, "I have no tomorrows. Every damn day is like every other damn day." It was reported to me that on her deathbed she said, "I have so many regrets. I wish I could start all over." The good news is she woke up, even if it was with her "last breath".
On the other side of this coin is a young man, in a workshop, gay and quite confused with his sexual orientation that said, "I may have lots of problems but one thing you can be sure of, I experience everyday as a new beginning." At the end of the workshop he said, "I'm still not sure I want to be gay or straight, but I do know I will decide and I've decided to not beat myself up anymore for not knowing." With such an attitude, we can be assured that he uses everyday and all events as the hill he climbs just to see what's on the other side—simply to have new experiences of himself—that is the breakfast, the nurturing. The really great news is each of us can take this daily trip of self-discovery, regardless of who we are, what we've been up to or where we are going.
The following is a simple way to begin developing an attitude that lets everyday and all events become adventures. |
