As I was preparing the show notes for this podcast episode and thinking about what adventure might mean in day-to-day life, I toyed with the idea that adventure might mean the breakthrough of a pattern that holds a person back from experiencing the complete joy that life can bring and the journey forward from that breakthrough. Maybe some of us become too wrapped up in the fallacious idea that life should be perfect and that only people with perfect lives deserve success - probably perpetuated by the images we see of other people on social media - and never overcome the challenges life throws at us. As I thought about my interview in today's podcast and the adventure theme that is interwoven throughout the episodes this month, I came across this quote by one of my favorite creative, Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love. 

“Let’s just anticipate that we (all of us) will disappoint ourselves somehow. Go ahead and let it happen. Let somebody else be a better mother than you for one afternoon. Let somebody else go to art school…

Let somebody else have a happy marriage, while you foolishly pick the wrong guy. (Hell, I’ve done it; it’s survivable.) While you’re at it, take the wrong job. Move to the wrong city. Lose your temper in front of the boss, quit training for that marathon, wolf down a truckload of cupcakes the day after you start your diet. Blow it all catastrophically, in fact, and then start over with good cheer. This is what we all must learn to do, for this is how maps get charted — by taking wrong turns that lead to surprising passageways that open into spectacularly unexpected new worlds. So just march on. Future generations will thank you — trust me — for showing the way, for beating brave new footpaths out of wonky old mistakes.

Fall flat on your face if you must, but please, for the sake of us all, do not stop.

Map your own life.”

The whole article where that block quote came from is here.

I highlighted the parts of the quotation that I think speaks so specifically to adventure. That maps are charted through trials and error, that we make wrong turns sometimes, that finding new worlds is a risk we have to take in order to experience the wonders that the adventurous are blessed with. And the learnings that we record, the maps we draw to navigate life, that we then pass on to future generations become invaluable.

I think my interview with filmmakers, Tamika and Kimmlyn Archie, embodies that spirit of adventure. Tamika and Kimmlyn are the producer of the hit TV series Behind Closed Doors and we talked about a wide range of topics: how to produce a TV series with very little experience and a limited budget, organizing the production and actors to keep the show on schedule, drawing the inspiration for the storyline from real life, and using the TV series as a platform for difficult conversation around childhood trauma and women's issues. I hope you sense the spirit of adventure in both Kimmlyn and Tamika and enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Links to resources mentioned in the interview:

Nuvysion Media Group

Facebook Page

Tamika Archie Knights

Stormii Knights

Behind Closed Doors

Twitter: NuVysion Media

Bring adventure into your life this month with prompts, ideas, and resources on adventure with the free HCL June 2020 Adventure booklet. Download the Adventure Booklet here.