The Art of Spontaneity
Do you ever plan out a weekend and expect it to go exactly as you thought?
I believe all of us do this to a certain extent on weekends away, vacations, or holidays. We plan to go do certain activities, but what happens when those plans get uprooted or don’t go the way we think? What do you do then, how do you respond? This happened to me a few weekends ago when a group of us planned to hike one of Colorado’s infamous 14er’s.
I had planned enough for the weekend long in advance, like where we would camp and the time when we would start hiking the next day. Like most adventures begin, we left two hours later than we should have. There was a three hour drive to our camp site, but as we drove we stopped many times to explore the stunning nature around us. We arrived at the camp site to find that it was completely full, so we drove to a few more and found the same thing: all the spots were taken. So we just decided to pull off the road and set up a tent (which is legal in a national forest). We stayed up later than we should have and slept in later than we planned. From there we tried to hike the 14er but storms and leg injuries prevented us from doing so. Not one thing went they way I had expected, and thank God for that because it turned out to be one of my favorite adventures of the year.
We left late - we kept stopping during our drive because we wanted to see winding rivers, climb fences, and see sunsets from the high places. The place we found to camp resulted in some of my best astro photography work. The mountain side we climbed was covered in the beauty of wild flowers and Columbines. We found an abandoned mine and explored it. I got to spend time with my sister and friends. This was not what I planned at all- it was better. It was a full weekend of adventure.
Webster defines adventure as “an unusual, unknown, and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.” An adventure isn’t something we plan, an adventure in its nature, is something that pushes us into our uncomfortable zone and asks us to be spontaneous in the situations that are presented. In a time where society and social media praises adventure, I think very few people choose to accept the adventure because it requires spontaneity and humility. I found that as my plans fell apart, they were replaced with something better than I could have imagined. I had a choice to respond by being upset. shut my self off from the world. and be frustrated that things did not go my way. I think the life of a true adventurer is to accept what has been given to you. run wild with it, and that is exactly what I did. This is the art of spontaneity: it may not be what you planned, it may in fact, be better than you have ever imagined.
