Cheers to adventure

life, death and the unknown

To die will be an awfully big adventure.
— J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan (1904 play)

To live would be an awfully big adventure.
— Peter (Hook, 1991)

And so it begins. February 12th. From an infectious disease office to a hospital bed. Today marks the beginning of an end. Today started a list of questions and searching What is this sickness? How do we get the cancer out of her? How am I supposed to do this?

Maybe adventures are journeys into the unknowns

As I write this, my heart is heavy but there is peace. My wife is on adventure. She exploring a world that I don’t know. Since 2007 all her adventures included me. but the last 2 years she’s seen wonders without me.

Grief, is a wild thing because I want to be on the adventure, but I’m excited for what she now knows in full. A dear friend gave me this picture. I need the reminder that of the adventure that my wife is on.

“Now at last they were beginning Chapter one of the Great Story no one on earth has ever read. Which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

I know what the good book says. I know what I believe. I know what I hope for. But the reality is I don’t know what the other side is like. I don’t know what is waiting. But I know my wife loves an adventure.

Maybe that’s what adventures are; stepping into the unknown.

Every moment, every how are you, every day is a different kind of the same adventure. I am here. I’m broken. I’m ok. I’m whole and I’m scattered. I’m stepping into the unknown adventure in the Vally of the shadow of death. Or as the Puritan prayer says, maybe it’s an adventure into the valley of vision.

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.

Cheers to adventure. Wherever it leads. I welcome the adventure of the broken heart.

May His grace carry you on your adventure,

Luke