Tag: Growth

An ancient and forbidding monumental stone wall with irregular shaped blocks.

Clearing the Wall

April 30, 2022

There it stands in front of you, solemn and resolute, towering towards the sky. Welcome to the wall! The wall represents the biggest obstacle on the path to your dream, or the greatest challenge to be overcome during your journey towards a personal goal. It might not appear as a wall to everyone, instead you may imagine yourself at the bottom of a deep pit, or faced with some other equally formidable obstruction to your progress. Regardless of the form taken, it is too often a place of death—the location at which many flickering flames of hope have been extinguished, never to be relit. Make no mistake, getting over or through the wall requires strong stuff. This barrier may appear anywhere along your adventurous journey and no matter how smoothly you have been making your way forward, it can stop you cold in your tracks. It sizes you up, looks into your soul, and weighs what you carry in your heart. … More Clearing the Wall

Mystical rays of autumn sunlight filtering through the trees of a misty forest.

Magical Moments in Time

February 28, 2022

As a writer based in Tokyo, the world’s most populous urban conurbation, I sometimes find my clarity of thought overwhelmed by a variety of superfluous sensory stimuli that pollute both the environment and my mind. Fortunately, on my figurative doorstep I have access to some fantastic national parks and natural habitats that serve as refuges from—and antidotes to—the chaotic miasma of commercial and industrial nonsense that many big cities spew forth. It is to these wonderful places that I invariably escape, not only for a quick fix of adventure, but also to refocus myself and seek out moments of balance, comprehension, and insight. Whether extroverted or introverted, occasionally searching for solitude and creating stillness in our always on-call modern world helps us cast aside things that hold us back from developing to our full potential. … More Magical Moments in Time

The first signs of the setting sun in a partly cloudy sky over the ocean and several palm trees.

First Light, Last Light

September 12, 2021

Each morning is marked by the appearance of the sun over the horizon. As it steadily climbs out of the darkness of the preceding night, it radiates warmth—providing all living things with energy. It has signified birth and renewal to humankind since as far back as we know and without it there would be no life at all. When rising in its silent and stately manner it carries with it all the possibilities of a new day. As its light becomes brighter, we continue ahead on our personal journeys. We take on challenges, surmount obstacles, and try to reach our goals to the best of our abilities until the fiery orb has completed its voyage through the sky. As it disappears once again, sinking into the abyss of blackness, it urges us to reflect on how we spent the time. Did we use it wisely? Did we do what we wanted to do? Did we move forward? Like each day, no sunrise or sunset is exactly the same as another. … More First Light, Last Light

A man carrying a bag of limes over his shoulder while walking past a red, white, and blue building in Colombia.

Local Life

August 13, 2021

Along the path of adventure we are led away from what we have always regarded as normal. Seeing and experiencing something different can result in both positive and negative reactions but regardless of this, new encounters help us to develop and grow. One thing that makes any journey interesting is observing how the communities we come across live. Learning about local culture through traditions, customs, dress, food, drink, and typical lifestyle practices leads to more empathy, knowledge, and broader cultural horizons. As we move among the varied peoples of this planet, the richness in diversity of our species is presented in full colour and we become more aware of our interdependence and the need for tolerance and cooperation. We may even discover that the doors we open to these other worlds allow us access to ways of living that we actually prefer, and in time we might choose them for ourselves. … More Local Life

A deserted tree-lined dirt path leading deeper into a mysterious forest.

Pathways

July 27, 2021

Every journey and every adventure begins with a single step along some kind of path. We may not know where they will take us or what trials and rewards they will present us with, but we can be certain that starting out along one of them will open up a myriad of possibilities. Some of them are solitary and straight, heading off into the distance on their determined lonely course. Some are winding and carry the traveller around corners to hidden things, while others lead to unexpected destinations via serendipitous intersections. There are pathways that take us back in time through ancient ruins or forests, and ones that transport us into the future towards unknown horizons. In life we occasionally find ourselves traversing one without knowing how we got there, but at other times we need to actively seek them out to grow. They are the arteries of existence that allow us to transform inertia into activity. … More Pathways

Open pages of a large book highlighted by a shaft of light representing wisdom, knowledge, learning, and enlightenment.

Sources of Inspiration – Adventure Stories

February 28, 2021

The need for escapism has been a constant throughout all ages of recorded human history. Adventure stories cater to this by serving as vehicles that allow us to make enjoyable mental forays into the mysterious and exciting unknown. Some of the oldest myths and folk tales we are aware of have been passed down over centuries, or in some cases millennia. One can imagine the children of Ancient Egypt listening to elders recount the myth of Osiris, or gazing at the stars while attempting to trace the sun god Ra making his perilous nightly journey through the realm of the dead. Who hasn’t heard of Homer’s epic Greek adventure poem The Odyssey, such a significant piece of storytelling that it can still be found in book stores throughout the world today. There are many more surviving examples from antiquity that have endured in one form or another. … More Sources of Inspiration – Adventure Stories