Adventure!

At Brooklyn Beta in 2014, John Maeda (the bird version) spoke. I'm unable to find any of my journals on that particular Brooklyn Beta, but I liked the conference A LOT, and Maeda's talk in particular.

I strongly recall his saying that when things go wrong, his response is, "Oh, how fantastic!" as things going wrong are opportunities to learn, to explore, to let go, to observe, to create, to discover, and to practice (usually patience, but sometimes other good things like inquisitiveness and curiosity). I loved the idea, and tried to do something similar, but pretty much always failed at recognizing my "Oh, how fantastic!" moments.

Or so I thought.

Recently, I've noticed that when things have gone wrong, have not worked out the way I expected or wanted, have been less than ideal, or could be any of these, I find myself shrugging, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, and commenting, "Adventure!" with various degrees of enthusiasm.

Because that's what life is, isn't it?

An adventure.

One where you're sure you're on the train to New York, only to discover, you've arrived in York, Idaho.

And that's okay.