The biggest adventure of all

‘Adventure‘, the theme of this week’s Photo Challenge, made me think about some of the quite exciting (but tame compared to most people’s) adventures I’ve had in my life: travelling alone across Europe in my late teens; working in Paris and Monaco for three years as a children’s Nanny in my early twenties; living and working in London in the middle of the 1980s economic boom;  meeting some mildly famous and sometimes very interesting people;  returning to full-time education at the age of 30; giving birth to my two children – every day is an adventure with them!  Then, I’ve had a few writing adventures: a play produced on the London stage; a play and a short story broadcast on BBC radio; a few competition wins; stories and poems published in magazines and anthologies – all these have been adventures in their own way, involving risk-taking, self-exposure; taking on board rejection and criticism – and praise.  But, actually, none of this compares to the biggest adventure of all, which was to decide to share my life with the guy in the picture, my husband, Andrew.  We’ve been together since March 17th 1994 and married since June 1997.   I’d be lying if I told you that every day was swashbuckling and breath-taking and filled with the kind of action that would keep you up late wanting to know what happens next.  Our story is hardly a page-turner (although we’ve had our moments) but, twenty years later, here we are, still surprising each other, still making each other laugh (and cry, on occasion, who said we were perfect?)

There has been no skydiving, river rafting (does canoeing count? swimming in the sea? boogy-boarding? a bit of wild swimming in rivers and lakes?) or mountain climbing (unless you count miles and miles of trekking through muddy fields and lanes, some of them with quite an incline *lame joke klaxon*).  Does going on a family cycling trip count?  how about standing at the side of a muddy, windswept field watching our son play rugby? how about watching him play drums? or our daughter in one of her dance shows?  Not exactly heart-stopping stuff.  Except that my heart does still miss a beat, sometimes, because, you know what? I don’t need to be travelling at the speed of light, or parachuting, hang-gliding or deep-sea diving to be having an adventure.  My adventure is the life I’m living now with the man right next to me.  Cue the epic music!  More adventures to discover here http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/adventure/.