Talking Point 14: Where do you start an adventure?

The front door slams shut and the house is still. School’s back, Kirstie’s gone out and I have the place to myself.

Outside I hear the now familiar chug of the 555, idling at the bus stop in the Square. I can just see it through the window from where I’m sitting. And for a moment I’m transfixed; me looking in at the passengers looking out through the steamy windows of the bus.

That was us last week

It’s slightly strange to think that was us all of last week. And what’s stranger is I miss it. Not the kids, but the bus, and the pensioners heading off shopping in Milnthorpe, the nurse on her way to the hospital in Kendal, the Japanese tourists who will snap their way to Windermere. Even the guy on the top deck who will selfishly hog two front seats and sleep his way to Keswick.

At first I was snobbish about spending a week on such a simple, local mission; catching the bus and walking a little each day. And now I miss it. Because it was simple. And envigorating. And revealing; I learnt a lot in a week about a place I’ve lived in for over ten years yet now realise I still barely know.

Adventures can start at home

As I sit and wait for the bus to leave I realise adventures really can start at my front door, everyday, on the hour. The local bus IS travel. For a few pounds fare it takes me somewhere else, somewhere different to where I am now.  It doesn’t matter whether it’s for the first time or if I’ve been there a thousand times before; if I get on that bus I am on a journey. And it is always different, even when it is the same. As Heraclitus said, “no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

The people, the place, the weather, the seasons, my self; these things are not static but dynamic. So the art of adventuring at home is to be able to see and experience that, to notice not what is the same but what is new and different this time. When there are so many places in the world I have not been it’s easy to think that only a new place can offer something new, but that is to overlook the beautiful unfamiliarity of the familiar.

The bus moves off . All those people on their way somewhere else. And I wonder ‘Are they just people on a bus? Or are they off on an adventure?’

Talking Point

Have you adventured close to home? If not, where does adventure start for you?

Join the Conversation

Talking Point is our series of short Photo Friday posts. Each week we pick a photo and post a talking point and invite you to join the conversation. Do leave a comment with your thoughts.

 For more photo inspired fun why not check out Travel Photo Thursday from Budget Travelers Sandbox, Photo Friday at Delicious Baby or Friday Dreaming at RWeThereYetMom.