Rejuvenated by Adventure
Transcipt
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Welcome to season three, episode five of The Puzzlers, and I will be your host today. My name is Val and I have my friends and family puzzlers with you today. I have Tracy Lowe, Sue Lowe. Hello, Katherine. Hello. And Nicole, our producer. Welcome to this episode. We're going to have some fun today. This whole season, we've been talking about rejuvenation.
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And today I'd like to zone in on rejuvenation through new adventures. It was about the middle of the summer when we started talking about the topic of rejuvenation. And as I stop to think about what rejuvenates me, I realized in that moment I felt quite rejuvenated. And the reason I felt rejuvenated in that moment when I really thought about it, was because I had embarked on a new adventure.
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So there it was. My topic for this season became a live rejuvenation through new adventures. Over the last year or so, I found myself feeling a bit restless. I would say I've been in the same career for a long time. I've been raising my kids, but they're a bit older now, and they can both drive themselves and have a bit more space and a bit more time.
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And I don't know, maybe it was been life crisis, maybe a little bit of boredom, I'm not sure, but I found myself a little bit restless, a little bit itchy, just wanting to try something new and different. I even brought God this to God. Not in so many words, but the gist was, I think I'm ready for a new adventure.
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Then one day I was talking to a friend, and that day she was going for an interview to become a tour guide. I thought, oh, that sounds like something I would love to do. And she told me it was just very part time. I could do it alongside my other job. So I had to make a video, and then I had to do my first interview in 20 plus years, and then I got the job moved.
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Then I had to prepare for the job, which was quite a bit of work. I had to write my own tour. I had to go on mock tours, and then I was ready to do my very own tour. First I had to find parking in Niagara Falls, which is not easy. And then I had to arrive early to welcome my guests.
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And then I did my very first tour with people who had no idea it was my very first tour. So if you imagine me walking around Niagara Falls with my green shirt, my green bag, my voice amplifier, a green binder above my head to part the crowds. And there I was. It was terrifying. It was thrilling.
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It was empowering. It was nerve wracking, but I absolutely loved it. If I had chosen what to talk about in regards to rejuvenation a year ago or three years ago, I don't think it would have been this. But I love this. It's super cool. It's kind of fun outside the box way of thinking of being rejuvenated. In Isaiah 43 verse 19, God says to us, for I am about to do something new.
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You see, I have already begun. Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.
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This has been a favorite verse of mine, especially in hard times, because just to believe that God is doing something new in the wasteland brings so much hope in those times. But this verse also speaks to me about new adventures. I feel like there's an excitement in this verse. I think that God loves to make things new. He loves things that bring life and hope.
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I think he'd love to join us in an adventure. I think he'd love to show us new things about himself, about others, about ourselves. So that's what we're going to talk about today. So let's start off our discussion with just sharing about some of our adventures I've shared about a new adventure I've had. It's a pretty big adventure, I would say.
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But puzzlers tell us about an adventure that you've had currently or in the past. Big or small. Doesn't matter. I'm going to dive into this one. Yeah, because I, I immediately knew where I was going to go with this. And as I've mentioned before, I've, I've been to Guatemala on, on that's a big adventure. But this time I want to go paddle boarding down the Niagara River at dawn with two close girlfriends.
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Yeah. This is something that I had in my heart for years. And for one reason or another. I planned it a few times and we got rained out once. Another time it just got really cold early in the year and it was like, this is not going to be fun. So we didn't do it. And finally I got to the point where I was like, if it doesn't happen this year, this two summers ago, if it doesn't happen this year, I don't think I'm ever going to do it.
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So I kept the group small. I contacted two close girlfriends who I knew would just appreciate kind of the sacredness of the moment, and people that I also knew would be able to get up early. And I said, meet me at the Queenston docks, like before sunrise. We had to get there in the dark so that we could blow up our paddleboards and get in the water and be out on the river while the sun rose.
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And there was a moment earlier where you were talking, Tracy, about your sister having to experience sunrise differently because the sun is actually up, but it's not shining on you yet. Because because you're you're hidden by the landscape around you. We were down in the gorge, right? So sunrise took forever, and it actually got light in the sky before the sun was hitting us.
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Yeah. And it was this beautiful stretch of time where we're. Yeah. Just that where the light was with us. It was silent. There's nobody out there at that time. And just me and two girlfriends. It's quiet. You can actually just coast. You're not paddling at all. You're just floating. You have to have your paddle because there are some fun little currents in there that you need to be prepared for.
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But it took us about 2.5 hours, and we, disembarked in Niagara on the Lake. We sat, we talked. We were silent. We paddled. We didn't paddle. It was beautiful. It was absolutely beautiful. We sang at one point. And when we got out of the water, we were so proud of ourselves. It was a very fabulous adventure.
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I sounds like the puzzler should do this. Oh, it's so fun. There was also the danger of potentially crossing the international border, which runs down the middle of the river. Oh, what could I get you to get us? It was so good. It was so good. Yeah. Adventure. Walk a lot was so many. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How great.
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Oh, great. That's amazing. Val, I love that you started with that verse, because that verse is actually like one of my, like, key life verses that God has pivoted me in different directions over and over and over again. And, I always say that I'm on the biggest adventure with the greatest driver, and that life is like the adventure and God has lead you through the adventure.
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And one time I was watching, I was in a difficult place actually, in life, and I couldn't sleep. So I got up and I was watching a movie that came on. It was, day and night with like K and now with Tom cruise. Anyways, okay, he's watching it and, feeling quite like, emotional and, she, the actress in it goes from feeling really apprehensive to like, feeling really capable about, like, traveling through challenges and, and that and, Tom cruise says to her with me and hand high in the air without me, with hand low in the air.
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And guy went with me, without me to me. And it was just about like being on this great adventure with him continually leading. And that life verse, led me on different places. But the biggest adventure was when he pointed that verse out to me as being not just like, new places, in terms of the world, but new places in terms of our brain.
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Like, behold, I'm doing a new thing. Do not perceive it. I'm making a way in the wilderness and stream in the desert, thinking like neural pathways, right? Like New Luke's, a new way of thinking, a new way of framing things. And so I feel like my greatest adventure is with him helping people make new connections, new adventures in their own personal neuroscience and joy and wiring and just being immersed in wonder and delight and care.
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And yeah, it's the adventure I get to do every day. That's a beautiful way to think. I have a whole nother spin on it. And I love that Catherine too said life is adventure, right? Because that's the first and foremost place when you ask the question. Val and I thought rejuvenation, when I think about being taken right back, it has been this year.
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This year has had a whole lot of adventure, working from home full time. Now, the dogs it. But that's also not being light and refreshing. Always. Right. So adventure sometimes is like unbuckled in. And you can't making a way in the wilderness sometimes involves like the excavating right. It's not like it's not all sunshiny but but the memories and, sorry, the adventure.
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That was one that was really key in my life was in 2007 when I got to take my mum to Scotland. Now we went to Scotland together, but I had had it on my vision board, a picture of my mom and of Scotland of a little croft in Glencoe. And the year after my dad passed away, one of my sisters saw it and she said, she initiated this whole place and I have maybe shared, but my sisters are 10 to 15 years older than I am.
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And my sister said, we will always have 10 to 15 years more memory, which, mum, we want you to have these memories. And so it was such. And we love genealogies, right? Mom and I shared that the love of history. I got to take her back to where her family was. I do love to plan, but the stories like to be able to research it so that I could tour guide her because she loved the history as much.
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And for me, that pilgrimage in that was that I went to Iona. The island of Iona were Columba was in, like your hand, resting on a stone cross that has stood there for over a thousand years. And like that was my point. Mum's point was standing in a little, little tiny village in a little well, in the church, and then her hand on her ancestors gravestone and seeing where they had left generations before because you couldn't see it until then, because they'd harvested all the trees, like all of these things that anchored us, you know, into the story.
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And then like the tons of pictures that kind of came back. So it was the before and the after and yeah. So those were life's adventure. But then the away ventures are there too. So that's awesome. Yeah, I think having adventures, new adventures is so, it's life giving in so many ways. And as I sat and contemplated my new adventure, I thought, how has this adventure changed me?
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Or grown me? And so I came up with a little list, and maybe after I share the puzzles, you can share about how your adventures have grown. You as well. So here's my list. My adventure and being a tour guide has grown me this way. Now I am aware of a bigger world. I am increasing my love for people.
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I am paying more attention to details around me, probably because I'm seeing things through the eyes of someone else for the first time. I am realizing where I can be awkward, and I'm curious about that. I'm proud of myself when I've stretched myself. I'm finding joy and fascination and having coworkers who never had that before. I sometimes feel strong and impressed and grateful for myself.
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I sometimes have to battle brand new worries or anxieties that usually weren't part of my typical day. And Catherine, I am building new neural pathways, and I generally feel as though I'm expanding myself. Yeah? Yeah. Beautiful. What about you guys? Well, I can say what I learned from myself, particularly in the experience of planning everything on behalf of my mum.
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But in other life experiences, is that you can plan to the best of your abilities, but that doesn't mean things are going to go that way. And on that trip, there was a very significant something that totally changed our schedule because we were you don't need the details, but it completely changed our schedule and God really spoke to me.
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Rest in me and leave the rest to me. And the outcome was a story for another day. But it was powerful in our lives. And in that adventure. Other adventures I learned that I really can trust God and be okay, and I actually prefer it that way. That's even the dog adventure. There's so much when we learn it doesn't depend on me.
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But then again, very specifically when we were out West, there was this phrase that dropped into my spirit, like, I want to take in everything. Like I want to. I have said, I want to pick every wild flower. I want to catch every star. Like I just want to experience it all. And we are on Vancouver Island and it's like the giant cedars and all of those places.
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And I was just saying, okay, God, what's going on? Because I wasn't entering in. And the phrase that dropped into my head was experiential gluttony. And I sat with, I thought, oh, like, we can get so focused on wanting to take it all. It is in a sense of fear of missing out. Yeah, but we want to. So take it all in that we don't actually savor the where we are.
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That less is so often more. Yes. And I think just really those are things that, you know, the planning is fun, but the planning isn't God. And I think learning about others with mom and Pop from mom and I in that situation, someone had shared just before that quote, whether I completely go by it or not. But if faith moves mountains, God's favor causes other people to move the mountains for you.
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And we just had such an experience of other people coming along side, like we were going to have to catch a bus when we didn't expect to catch a bus. And the people at the hotel not only did he drive us to a bus stop, but they came back just before the bus was going to leave to make sure that we got it.
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And that kind of kindness of strangers, often in adventuring and other times is other stories that really speaks to me of you don't have to do it all on your own. Yeah. I think that's true about most adventures. They do cause us to become a little bit more fluid and be able to pivot because we're entering into something unknown.
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Right. Yeah. Right. And I love what you said too about enjoying the moment too. Because especially now people just have their cell phones and I think we don't really oh, we're so busy taking the photos that we might not sit and enjoy. Let's save or saying slow down, right? It is very tied to the slowing down that was one of the things I loved about being out on our paddle boards.
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While one of the women did take her phone with her. I mean, we all agreed to have the Wi-Fi off, and we were literally on the border, so we weren't using data and like that, but we had them for photos only and just being disconnected, like that and floating down the river. I mean, there was just it was a complete God moment for me.
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The whole thing turned into a spiritual practice, especially with the lingering rising of the sun and and going with the flow and taking good people with you. And I would say on, on kind of a light handed note, that was one of the things I learned about myself was how important it is to take the quote unquote, right people with you on adventures, you know, know who to share those moments with.
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Some people deplete you, some people add to you, some people will get it and really enter in. And and I knew these two women. Hi. Mandy and Laurie. I knew that they would get it and fully, fully enter in and appreciate it. And and it's just a really sweet memory for us now as well. So to share these key moments with the right people, these adventures, I think it's that was really important.
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I felt so empowered at the end. And, I mean, this was not a huge I've done other things that were physically far more demanding, major hikes and that sort of thing. This was not physically demanding, but it felt very empowering. I mean, to, to just be able to say, yes, I've paddled down the Niagara River and I posted about it, and three friends, like said, I'm going to do that.
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That's that's super cool. And it is. I've got to tell you, like, if you're listening to this and you can try it, it's so fun. But but lastly, just the thrill of doing something, of having it in my brain. And I had to that it took maybe four summers to make it happen, but there was that sense of accomplishment, but also the sense of just the thrill of doing something that you don't do every day, is it's invigorating.
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It's really invigorating. So rejuvenating, rejuvenating even. And so I learned that adventure is it's an important, life giving, energy giving, brain boosting kind of thing. Yes. Yeah. Well, just when in the planning, when you do all the planning before and then you see it in the concrete. Oh right. So like planning a trip and then like here we are flying into Vancouver Island like with my husband.
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Right. And yeah, here are the what was dots on the map. Yeah. Becomes that and yeah. Who you do it with that connection I mean smaller bigger. My husband I love road trips like just I like to plan as an end point. But other than that, take me down a road less traveled. Yeah. So the connection through your doing it, which is so, so important and adventure, is that a beautiful and so good.
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And I love how you said at the wheel they said this when you were describing it at the end, you got off your paddle boards and you were all so proud of yourself. We were like, yeah, right. You you kind of conquered something. Yes. Yeah. The mighty Niagara. Yeah. I love this conversation so much. I love all the different aspects and mine resonates with so many different aspects of what you ladies have both said already.
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I love where you ended in terms of like, it being so good for you because they actually show that, like, doing something new is where your brain can contain new proteins to actually heal. So there's this like incredible healing element where you were saying, like, I did this, I did this right. So yeah, that's amazing. I resonated with the flow.
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Because and floating. Yeah. As concepts of what I've learned on my great adventure of traveling with people in, walking in freedom and being on Freedom adventures, that's what I could call it, in that I need to stay in flow. I need to not be in like, fight and flight myself. Like I need to be in the flow, like down the lazy river with Jesus.
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That I can be so connected to all of the things that he wants to bring into my mind. And things that I've learned. Right. So it's just so beautiful to be in this adventure with God. And I've learned that I can flow, that I need to not be rigid, I need an I need to be prepared, but be able to be unprepared to write like my best preparation is to sit there in his presence and think over what might be some connections, but then also listen to see if that's where that person is.
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So yeah, it's, it's a beautiful adventure of flowing like you said, Tracy. Like being ready for for rest and not, and whatever just kind of unfolds, I think, the learning that I can flow and that it's beautiful to be in that flow with, with Jesus. That sounds like a little bit of a theme. From from the three of you now, it's like the flow, the fluidity, the pivoting.
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You know, it's just, yeah, there's something about that where we are releasing control that is really good for us. Yeah. Yeah. And those are all adventure things out and that we do, but one that I've been really in a different way because we can't all go on the Niagara River or to Scotland or Vancouver Island or wherever we might want to travel, is the John Muir that I referenced in the beauty episode was a naturalist and a traveler, and I've been really adventuring through his adventures.
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His first book is from his diaries and it's called A thousand Miles to the Gulf, and he just basically started the Canadian border, and it's his diary walking like he just walked, and all he took was like a bag, he said. Like a change of underclothes, a comb, a brush. And he took, John Milton's Paradise Lost, a book of Burns poetry and a small New Testament and, like, not even hardly money.
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And he's like, plunging through bush, and he's encountering flora and fauna and like, I'm just because that happens to, like, when we imagine and really put our place in that adventure. It's happening for us as well. And so that's just another way there. There used to be so many. There still are travel books when people couldn't travel, and those are beautiful.
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I love that kind of reading as well. And that sort of brings us back to last episode. We were talking about being able to see all of these rejuvenating properties through each other's eyes. And so you're going an adventure through someone else's adventures. And maybe that's why we like to look at other people's pictures and Facebook. And because we're I mean, I can do both ways if we can just get jealous or we could enter in and, like, live vicariously.
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There's a lot of living vicariously through that as a perspective change that kind of helps. Social media got a real supposed to really? Yeah. All right. I love that too, because I have clients who can't get. Oh, and so that's been you know, they want adventure. And so we're looking for YouTube adventures right. So that they can actually travel and see the beauty and and be immersed in nature and brain.
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We have so many opportunities now with social media that can be open to adventurous and adventurous. Exactly. So those are some really great insights. I want to talk for a minute about how these adventures can rejuvenate our spirit as well, and how we can bring God into our adventures. I know for me, as in my basically my relationship with Jesus right now, something that I've been focusing on and, I hope to focus on for the rest of my life is this word togetherness?
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Just being together, just enjoying God and being together with him. And so it makes me think of, Luke two verse 19, where it says, Mary treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart. And I realized she was contemplating being pregnant with the Savior of the world. But, I still love the intimacy of this verse.
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It's almost like we're hiding together, and I think it applies to new adventures. And as as well. For me, I think it a new adventure can almost be like a little secret between you and God. Yeah. He's he's with you in it, and you're traversing it together. How about you, ladies, I love that. How have your adventures together?
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God, I love him together and Texas together. Well, together in the gathering. I love that, Joe. Like, have your adventures involve God? And if so, how how do you. And invite him into your adventures? I love that whole concept because, we adventure that has, become so important in my life. Surprisingly. Maybe. Just last January, I started making sourdough bread, and that might sound like no big deal.
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I've always loved to bake. I didn't do it when everybody else did it during Covid, but last year I decided I was going to learn to make sourdough bread. I was given a starter by a young woman in Nashville and and off I went. We we love sourdough. And so off I went. And the reason it's an adventure is because sourdough is so intricate in how it's made.
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It's very specific. It's very chemical. You don't just grab readymade things from the from the pantry. Even to make it the mother, the starter is is such a unique thing. And I was the first time I made it. I was nervous, like, is this going to work? Because I heard of so many people air quotes failing at sourdough bread and, and like going to be able to do this and when I pulled out my first loaves and I felt that huge sense of, oh my goodness, they're they're beautiful now.
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But do they taste good? You know. And it's a, it's a real sense of accomplishment, much like paddleboarding down the Niagara River. I did that too. It's just something new, fresh, bit challenging, right? In my own kitchen. But I got such a huge sense of accomplishment from it and satisfaction from it that now when I make my sourdough bread, first of all, I pray for the young woman who gave me the starter.
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And our bread has become known as Easter bread because the young woman's name was Esther. Sounds very biblical, I know, but she is Esther. And as I'm making the bread, I think much like gardening is for you, Catherine, about how we add this little bit. And God does this and how he massages us. And the stretch stretch does stretch the slap and fold the stretch and fold of making sourdough bread.
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The time it takes to profit. Yeah. What are we proving in our own lives? What are we proofing? Soaked proving in our own lives? What's rising, what's baking? What's the. What's the beautiful exterior in the soft inside of us? Like this I used to teach spiritual practices, and bread making has become a complete spiritual practice for me. Yeah.
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Really? Because initially it was just the. It was just the satisfaction of it. And I thought, but why is it so satisfying? So my brain and my spirit just went off on that. Do you like listen to music while you do it, or is it totally I don't do you know what? I talk to my bread like it's it's I'm very involved with my dough.
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I talk to my clients. It's me. And my dough. Yeah, and I do, and I really do. I pray for, I pray for Easter. I always I'm so thankful for her. But, you know, and then it's the daily kneading of the bread with her coffee every morning until sourdough toast. It's just it's, Yeah, it's very life giving on a very practical level, but it started off as a as an adventure, and it still is, because you're never quite sure what it's going to do.
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It's so many levels of connection in that great connection to her connection, sitting down to eat a slice of it. Yeah, yeah, I love this conversation because we're basically talking about everything being like like Holy Communion with God, like. And you very much talks about that Eucharist where we are like constantly, connected to him. And, for me, this adventure is that like, I feel like everything is this adventure with God, to be honest.
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Right? Then he is in all things. And it just leads me back to that whole concept of joy being connection and being like he is delighting in us and wanting to connect with us and everything we do. And he is part of like the joy he is, that he is where the joy is, right? Like there's so many of these pieces, but that he is in this intertwining of everything that he he made us for joy.
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He wants us to be in joy and he wants to enjoy it with us. So I think of it like delighting and being enjoyed together. So I feel like every adventure is an adventure with him. Like if I'm thrifting, it's like, hey, God, you know what? Like, I don't know if there's just the conversation and everything that it kind of walking through the woods is like looking for certain things that reflect him, or reflecting back to me or in my adventures with my clients, where I just feel like he wraps everything up with a bow, like he is the third party in every conversation.
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And people often go, I can't believe you're just saying that because yesterday was like, it's like, well, only God could have like pinpointed that in that moment. And so, yeah, I feel like life is alive with adventures with God. Which leads me back to being in connection with his joy, completion of joy. It's it's wonderful. It's like you're enjoying.
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Yeah. Another. Exactly. I love that you take God thrifting with you. I've been told I have the spiritual gift of thrifting, and maybe that's because I pray, right? I know y'all can too. So I thank God for. I'd like to show you a little treasure. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, what? What do you want to sell? Like your treasure hunting?
00;30;46;09 - 00;31;14;04
Yeah. Basically I look at life as a treasure hunt, actually. So when you were talking about Treasure Mountain and yes, it was right. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. It so. Well, I think the whole thing of adventure and we're talking about it, you know, the excitement and the joy and kind of that. I also think that sometimes and I think about over the course of adventure over this year when there's so much change, is that sometimes adventure also feels overwhelming.
00;31;14;07 - 00;31;41;07
Right. Like sometimes you're being invited to something because it's so much more. So I kind of ran this kind of off a little bit in that question. Thank you Val, for letting me share this, because this is a picture that the spirit has shown me just really recently, something he gave me. So I want you ladies, guys, people puzzlers who will call you and listeners to just close your eyes for a minute because I want to offer you something that I got offered me.
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And then I have shared as well. So imagine you're standing on a high point, a cliff edge horizon far stretching out, and you're back is resting, is up against God's strong chest, and he is head and shoulders above you. His strong left arm is wrapped around you, holding you so close that you can feel his heartbeat against your back and his arm is covering over your heart.
00;32;14;03 - 00;32;43;22
You can feel his warmth, and even on that high space where there are cold winds whipping around you for your safety, all of your vulnerable spots, your back, your heart are all guarded and you are held in the steadfast, unmovable embrace of a loving God. And then, with his right arm, he makes this wide, sweeping gesture, taking in the furthest horizon, encompassing everything that is there.
00;32;43;24 - 00;33;09;27
And in the middle of this, his voice comes both powerful and earth shaking, and like a breath on your cheek and you hear, I've got you, and I've got this. And this is not vague in general, it is an all encompassing when so it adventure feeling safe in the middle of adventure. Like I think if there's. How have your adventures involved God inviting him into it?
00;33;10;00 - 00;33;28;23
Whether it's feeling like when he was the pitcher he gave me one to like, buckle in, it's going to be a bumpy ride, but it's like a roller coaster ride where it's at harness and that safety belt. But that one I have, like, he's gotcha. My son, my son. What's set I gotcha, gotcha. Yeah. And that's what God says to us I gotcha right.
00;33;28;25 - 00;33;54;10
And so even when it is a lot this joy in that because there's safety in it. It sort of gives me the picture of Titanic, you know, the fire. Let's expand it. Yeah. I mean, Leo ship Renato DiCaprio would be God, and Kate Winslet would be us. But it's like that. It's that, like, they had nothing in front of them, right?
00;33;54;11 - 00;34;11;12
And they were just holding. He was holding on to her, and she was leaning on to him and the wind and the waves and and, that's the picture I got. What you were saying, that that picture was like a pivotal life change moment with the verse as well, was like standing on the edge of a precipice. Yeah.
00;34;11;17 - 00;34;38;08
And I remember as I leaned into that adventure thinking, oh, I like jump. But now I land on like nice level ground, realizing that it was it's a continuous kind of a freefall of surrender and knowing that he's holding us as we trust him. Like, that's the picture. So when you're talking about the front of the boat, that's came to mind, because sometimes he gives you the last minute path to turn left.
00;34;38;08 - 00;35;09;02
At other times he wants you to fly right off the cliff, right off the cliff. Well, those are some really good thoughts. Sometimes as she was saying, it took a few years to get on to that river. Sometimes it's hard to start an adventure and I do want to give a few minutes to just talk about what might be some barriers for us, for our listeners, to starting an adventure, because, I mean, for me, I, I almost didn't know.
00;35;09;02 - 00;35;27;27
I, I almost quit before I started, I had some doubts. I was doubting I'd be able to do it. I was thinking, what am I even doing this for? And then some life circumstances. My daughter had to have knee surgery and some other things were happening in our personal lives, were taking up my time and energy.
00;35;27;29 - 00;35;57;27
So it's not always easy to start an adventure. And it takes sometimes a bit of energy to just put yourself out there. Sometimes we just don't have it. And so, what are some barriers that you ladies have found that have prevented you from possibly stepping out into something new? It's so interesting. Wow. When you say that energy or a lack of energy can be the thing that keeps you from embarking on something.
00;35;57;29 - 00;36;24;06
When one of the benefits of going on an adventure is being energized, it's like working out. I don't have the energy to work out, but as soon as I start working out, I have more energy, right. So I just I just wanted to that just came very clear as you were talking, but, I think, a lack of confidence we can feel like.
00;36;24;11 - 00;36;47;20
Or pride even, like I might look silly. I don't know how to do this. I've never done this before, I might fail. What will people think? Has anybody ever had the voice in their life? The person or people who say you want to do what, like, are you nuts? Why? Why would you do that? Yeah, or sometimes I am that sometimes were the voice and my children.
00;36;47;22 - 00;37;10;27
There's the exterior voice that we need to push back against a lack of companionship to do it with, to do something with, I knew that going down the river alone would not be wise. Right. Like that just wouldn't be safe. But I also didn't want to just take anybody. Yeah. So having the right companion or a lack of companionship.
00;37;10;29 - 00;37;34;13
Out and out fear, a lack of finances, can keep people from doing things. It's kept me from doing things in the past. So those are just some of the things that came to my mind. Well, you, Tracy, I think, you mentioned money just there at the end and not necessarily the money itself, but the scarcity belief that we can come into.
00;37;34;16 - 00;37;54;20
But money and time, like, we can be so utilitarian. Right. This is a good use of my time. Is that a good use of my money? You know, got to be responsible or not. Waste your time, your money on frivolous things. Like when I think I think of that, not the life adventure place, but like the to travel perhaps or like and giving yourself permission.
00;37;54;20 - 00;38;26;01
It tied into something from Katherine's episode that I. I didn't go on. But Joy is also about giving yourself permission to be yourself and to do the things you love. Yeah. And so sometimes those can feel frivolous or like you're wasting time. Yeah. So yeah, whatever. Those kind of places are. But I think that's one. And I said the big adventures for me like a big God adventure, easier for me than the little kind of things because those little ones can be unnecessary or something I'd enjoy just because.
00;38;26;03 - 00;38;55;17
But the just because is a pretty important reason. Yeah. I think of a friend of mine who was telling me she really wanted to take a watercolor painting class. Oh yeah. But she said I don't know if I should do that because I could be using my time more wisely and so I think that's a big barrier for a lot of people just thinking it's frivolous or a waste of time, or you should be using your time to do something more important or for a higher calling.
00;38;55;19 - 00;39;23;23
Especially a Christian might think I should be volunteering in church when that time or you know, so it's finding that balance. Not every new adventure has to have a higher calling but some might. Right. And so it comes back if I may to the Jesus others you when you just said when we put the you at the end like we think we should be doing this, we should be serving where sometimes if you take a watercolor class, you don't know who you're going to meet at the watercolor service, right?
00;39;23;24 - 00;39;46;14
Right. Like maybe that's exactly where you're supposed to be, or it just refreshes you so that you have the time to give out to someone else. Like, that's that utilitarian thing we can do in our faith too easily. Yeah. Which are oxygen masks on first, right? Yeah. Literally everything we have, that's what I wrote down, was mindset. I feel like our mindset is what often stops us from new adventures.
00;39;46;17 - 00;40;11;07
Our mindset in terms of we won't have what we need or we're afraid of the unknown or, even our mindset around what adventure is like, does adventure have to look like everyone else? And so I'm not doing what everybody else's big adventures look like, right? But if we can branch out to like endless opportunities for growth and newness, like, really, I think that we're new is just the basis of it, right?
00;40;11;09 - 00;40;36;10
What is the new thing that we could try or be involved with and not be afraid of, or think that money has to stop because not every adventure costs money, right? Right. So if we can think of these not living from lack, right? What you were saying? Crazy. Being wide open to possibility opportunity. And I like Sue. You just said that like so quickly in passing.
00;40;36;10 - 00;40;58;29
Put your oxygen mask on first. Like, I think that's such a big deal because I mean, taking a watercolor class and inviting got into that. You just might see new things for yourself that just rejuvenate you. And that's enough. Yeah. That's enough right? Yeah. Then you've got this fresh new breath of oxygen. You can share your oxygen mask with someone else, right?
00;40;58;29 - 00;41;21;13
Like that's the whole thing about rejuvenation. We we do need to rejuvenate ourselves so we can rejuvenate others totally. Right? If others come first and we're not like, we go to the painting class, maybe it's this incredible moment where we're like, sitting with God and just at peace and rest and like missing that opportunity to connect with ourselves and him inside of ourself.
00;41;21;15 - 00;41;55;00
Yeah, yeah. So I just wanted to put that out there that, sometimes going on an adventure just by yourself, like Catherine said, going to a thrift store, and just inviting God into that is really, really fun. It's it's part of, having that relationship with him and just being together and, enjoying one another. So, I mean, as much as it's wonderful to invite other peoples into your adventure, sometimes there's a time for just you and him to go on what Tracy calls, date day.
00;41;55;00 - 00;42;17;13
A date day? Yeah, a date day with God. And I think, well, we do date days with our husbands. Maybe we should start incorporating some date days and kind and adventure together. Yeah. Makes me think of, I think it's called the Artist's Way. Oh. I'm not. I feel good. Yeah, I love her stuff. And the, And it makes me think of even, like Beth Moore, who's, like, delight me.
00;42;17;19 - 00;42;37;26
Like, she literally says, delight me, God. And she's like, eyes wide open or like, with kids Ministry. It was like, that we were on the lookout for God. Like, where is he? Because the whole world is alive with him and wonder. So yeah, a to these opportunities where we can even journaling can be an adventure. Yeah. It's like, you know, what are you pouring out of my heart or right.
00;42;37;28 - 00;42;54;20
What new thoughts? Right? Or if we even ask Holy Spirit, what do you want to say to me today? Is there anything you want to say to me today? And sometimes it's just picking up the pen. Yeah. Well that's sort of what happened with me. Right. I felt a bit restless and not in so many words but I love that Catherine delight me.
00;42;54;20 - 00;43;16;23
I think that's a nice, a nice ask of God. Delight me. I think he will delight you because that's joy. Yeah. He wants to want to. You wants to be made like if we go look back at every episode he made the world that we would end joy and we would end joy. Him. Right. All of these pieces are pieces of, like, living in joy.
00;43;16;23 - 00;43;40;00
So all of life is alive with adventure, if you look for it. If you look for it. Yeah. Okay. Speaking of adventures, let's just throw a few ideas of what our listeners might think of as an adventure to get their juices flowing. So just pop popcorn it out. Go to my new neighboring town. Yes, go for a drive and go explore a little town.
00;43;40;00 - 00;44;00;12
Yes. Walking? Sure. By yourself? Yeah. Somewhere you don't. Yeah. Urban? Yeah. A new restaurant alone? Yeah. Nice. New. A new restaurant alone. Wow. Cafe alone. I love it. You talked to people? Well, that was one that I was thinking to say. Say hello to someone you haven't said before. Like you're walking the dogs and even your seat or whatever.
00;44;00;12 - 00;44;26;10
Walking and someone you see, it's amazing what can start opening up in terms of a conversation. I, I think it's so much a part of that new. Right. Like, I feel like this is just alive with the verse that you started with, right? I'm doing a new thing. Where's the new thing? A new skill, a new research topic, a new dance move, a new path, a new park, a new beach, a new stream, a new friend.
00;44;26;12 - 00;44;48;27
Any more? Explore new questions, even trying to see something in a new way. So like we've done trips that are like, let's pretend we're tourists in Niagara on the lake because like, we never do, right? And so yeah, and how we frame it like so even if you're a planner, if you're wired that way, that in itself is the adventure.
00;44;48;27 - 00;45;10;18
So one of the things after going down that genealogy, you know, rabbit hole that we did is that I now have mapped out the trip that we want to take down through Pennsylvania and all those stories and those stops and places. So like, fingers crossed, Brenda, but because we're going down your way. I'm asking a new question and learning something new about someone.
00;45;10;18 - 00;45;35;00
Right? Like, I just I feel like it's endless. So, you know, for those of us, for people and ourselves, if we can keep our mindset open to like, it doesn't have to work because I personally have not traveled. Right. So when you were asking that question about an adventure, I'm like, I'm not going to come to mind about travel, but look at these endless possibilities of doing something new that our brain will grow and heal.
00;45;35;00 - 00;46;04;15
And yeah, that's beautiful. That's great. Well, I have certainly loved this, conversation. And of course, for us, being puzzlers was also a new adventure for us. And it's been amazing. I'd love to just close out this session. Just reading a blessing prayer over the puzzlers here and our listeners. So if you would close your eyes and just receive.
00;46;04;17 - 00;46;43;05
May you step out of the mundane into bright sunshine, into fields of sunflowers, into open blue skies. Might you squint your eyes to look beyond what is right in front of you? Inhale something unfamiliar. Breathe in something delicious. Something that makes your curiosity soar. May you take the hand of Jesus running with the wind on your backs, laughing and singing together, floating above the typical into new adventures.
00;46;43;07 - 00;47;12;27
I hope for you all of this and more. Amen, Amen. So that wraps up episode number five. Thank you all for joining us today. I hope that each of you seeks out some new adventure in whatever way you're designed to enjoy life. We look forward to hearing about them. And now I'm going to pass this off to Nicole, who's going to tell us about our next episode.
00;47;12;29 - 00;47;43;22
Well, the the next and the final episode of season three. Will be an opportunity for me to actually ask puzzlers some follow up questions to their episodes of what kind of stood out to me as a first listener, of this podcast season and, and the big ends capital and, we will have, big announcements that you don't want to miss.
00;47;43;25 - 00;47;53;24
And it is actually connected to this series about being rejuvenated. So please tune in to the next episode of.