When Adventure Comes Calling
“You can’t be serious. Are you crazy?” my husband asked. I don’t know. Was I? I couldn’t help that my maternal instincts kicked in. Sure, we already have five, four still home—rambunctious and noisy as ever. But I was having a mommy moment. Those beautiful dark eyes beckoned me. The way she grunted. Her squirmy self. My husband waited. Surely, I couldn’t be serious. Don’t we have enough going on in our chaotic household? With kids, two cats, and two degus, do we also need a raccoon?
Roxy. We had already named her. Just a day prior, we found her abandoned in a neighbor’s yard. If we didn’t get rid of her, the neighbor assured us he would, and it wouldn’t be pretty. So we nudged the three week-old hissing, biting baby into a box. Over the course of a few hours, with some gentle words and more than a few blueberries, she nuzzled her pointy nose in the crook of my arm as I petted her fine baby fur.
I said to my husband, “We are going to have ourselves a little adventure, and it’s going to be called “The Summer of the Raccoon.” He said it wasn’t adventurous; it was just stupid. He was probably right. After discovering that baby raccoons turn into, well, adults, I decided to take her to a wildlife rehabilitation center. While I longed for the joy of something new and different, I wasn’t looking forward to the raccoon stories of mischief and mayhem I read about: marking their territory, disassembling garbage disposals, tossing dishes out of cabinets, rewiring the car. Sorry, Roxy, but you’ll be better off elsewhere.
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Yes, there’s an adventurer in me waiting to be unleashed. I pine for expedition and discovery. Perhaps it’s that I’m nearly forty and realize I’m at the half-way point of my life. Or maybe it’s because I am not utilizing my knowledge, talents, and life experiences the way God intended. But whatever it is, I know I’ve been on a quest for the last couple of years.
What about you? Are you stuck in your routine? Have you become bored with your own life? Do you long for more, feeling God’s nudge? Is He calling you to a life of adventure and discovery?
Raccoons may not be in your future, but adventure awaits us everywhere. We only need open our eyes to the mysteries of this world, listen to the maternal instinct inside all of us to care for another, and take a leap. The journey may not be easy, but it certainly will be interesting. And rewarding.
