Poem #12: Adventure Is A Verb

Today I leave for a 12 day tour of Germany. I will report back on my adventures after I return, as I am uncertain of the availability of Internet access in my family's old country. Until then, I encourage you to pursue adventure according to this recipe:

Adventure Is A Verb

Adventure.
Devour life.
Eschew Life’s beaten track.
Bushwack off-trail
cutting broad swaths
through Life’s gangly grasses.
Surmount Life’s precipices and ford its floods,
leap its chasms undaunted,
yoke its vagaries and tame its tauntings.
Laugh at its idiocies and revel in its variety and inconsistency.

Don’t leaf through Life’s pages haphazardly,
but studiously glean understanding
and fervently peruse its wealth.

Life is a privilege, a joy -- each day a gift.
Don’t merely meditate on life – initiate.
Don’t merely consider – decide.
Don't merely complain - improve.
Don’t merely dream – create.
Don’t merely plan – accomplish.
Don’t merely hope – perspire.
Don’t merely experience – engage.
Don’t merely dawdle - delve.
Don’t merely exist – thrive.

Wring joy from every Life-moment’s droplet
and significance from every nuance.
Make Life an active verb, not passive,
present, not past nor future,
to be devoured, not nibbled,
a glorious opportunity to be savored.

Or wasted.

copyright 2003 by Chuck Morlock



Photo by Chuck Morlock in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska