The Ministry of Happiness

We still need adventures

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride! ~ Hunter S. Thompson

It’s a special night when you can quote both Lemony Snicket and Hunter S. Thompson in the same piece.  Here we have another Sunday night and I’m sitting down to write my normal weekly blog post, but it’s not a normal night, or week, or month or world at this point.  But life goes on and so does the Ministry of Happiness, maybe more importantly now than normal, as people need distraction, ideas and even to feel some sense of normalcy in these truly historic and unprecedented times.

I have often written about adventure, how important it is to me and also have written about many of my adventures, Petra in the Middle East, photographing polar bears in the Arctic and hiking to Mt. Everest to name a few.  It’s been a tough year for me on the adventure front.  One of my big goals was to check off my sixth continent in 2020.  My first hope was to take a cruise to Antarctica in December of 2020.  I would come to find out that booking that trip 14 months in advance was not early enough.  So I did what you do, I adapted and decided to visit the other continent I haven’t been to yet and hike the Overland Track in Tasmania, Australia.  I was about to book the trip when it became obvious that Covid19 was going to be a major issue and heavily disrupt travel globally.  So I’m on pause, still holding out a bit of hope that things calm down enough by fall and I can still pull off a trip, we’ll see.

So for now, we’re all sheltering in place, and it seems adventure on the large scale needs to be put on hold.  But that doesn’t mean we still shouldn’t look for or can’t find adventure.  Adventure does not have to be large, they can be small and just as amazing.  So tonight I wanted to provide you all with some small scale adventure ideas that you can do given our current limitations, even with your kids.

Let’s start on the simplest end of things, exploring your own neighborhood.  It’s important that even while being sheltered in place that you get outside as long as you follow safe, social distancing rules.  If you live in a more rural environment this can mean walking woodlots, forests and fields near your home.  Taking your time and really exploring these places can be a lot of fun.  Take your time, get off the beaten paths a bit, carefully and safely turning over old logs and stumps can lead to some amazing discoveries.  Look around trees in the wet and shady places for fungi.  Use the internet to try and identify the plants and animals you find.

Another small way to take an adventure is to walk the places you normally walk during the day, at night.  Assuming of course you’re in a safe place.  It’s amazing how a small trail or park changes just because the sun has gone down.  If you own a trail cam, set it up in your backyard.  People are often amazed at the wildlife that shows up at night in your yard even in the city.

If you’re stuck in the house and need to do something more virtual there are a lot of resources being put forward right now for free that you can utilize.  Recently I did a post on virtual resources available to entertain you.  It’s a great time to try things you never have as well.  So hey, always thought the philharmonic or opera wasn’t for you, check one out, and see.  Best thing about doing it virtually is you don’t have to dress up, buy expensive tickets and if you don’t like it you can just turn it off.  The post above has a ton of museums and cool things like virtual NASA missions to the moon utilizing actual moon mission broadcasts.

Do you have a backyard, then there a lot of things you can do to have a little adventure.  Take the family for a camping trip to the backyard, bring out the grill, make dinner, make smores and look at the stars.  Really want to do something interesting, do a little moth sheeting.  It’s really easy to do and you’ll be amazed at the beautiful and amazing little critters that show up.

The thing is, that even though we’re caught inside, even though things have changed, we can still keep things moving forward, we can even have adventures.  Do this and regardless of the situation you’ll have happy days my friend. ~ Rev Kane

Other Recent Ministry of Happiness Posts

You will never be the same again

Worry is the enemy of happiness

Happiness, Smiling and the Art of Being Positive