Adventure

How does one go about finding adventure when one is confined (without too much complaint) by earning a living, watching (gladly) one's grandchildren, and tending (serenely) one's parents? Not an age-old question, exactly, but certainly a relatively age-new question, yes?

Women of a certain age didn't used to actually survive to that certain age, even a few generations ago. Not that we're the only ones who yearn for thrills (our younger counterparts yearned so much they used to suicide in droves to escape the confinement, the "gilded cages," of their era) but we are the ones who have a chance to achieve it more often. Yet do we?

According to womentraveltips.com, 72 million women travelled last year (out of date, but probably still close), and that the average traveller is a 47-year-old female (who wears size 12, by the way). While that's cool, and everything, almost all of sites I pulled up with an "adventure women" Google search involved travelling (or, strangely, extreme sports). Dictionary.com defines adventure as a "bold, usually risky undertaking." Are travel and death-wish spins down rocky rivers our only choices?

I'm rethinking my strategy for this entire quest. Yes, I love searching for and finding treasures (in both shops and the earth). Yes, I want to write fiction again (a surprisingly possible way to achieve my goal). And yes, I continue to pay off and build up. But the masthead for this blog says I'm supposed to have adventures.

What does that mean?

I don't know yet what it is, but I know what it isn't - it's not travel for travel's sake, and it's not a black diamond run down a snow-covered slope (not with my back), and it's really not what I've been doing (well, not only that). There's something missing, not only from the concept but from the entire equation, something that will take this to a whole new level. Something that will make this the adventure of a lifetime.

I just need to find it.