In life we have two choices: experience or exist. Every week each of us make that choice: To seek a way to live or to simply get by. Walk alongside me each week on Strive Seek Find as we continue seeking our own Brilliant Future.
So we got out of town overnight this week. It was a great reminder that simplicity isn't always a bad and complex isn't always good. Camping and kayaking with family and , as always, trying something new.
a Special shout out to WiseOwl Outfitters for their outstanding hammocks. Possibly the most comfortable I've been when taking a break in the woods.
Hello there friends, both old and new. Welcome to the strive seek fine podcast, I'm your host chance went home to bite sized lifestyle advice from a fellow traveler on the road to a better life. Brought to you by someone who is a longtime educator, writer, parent, and an outdoor enthusiast, who may just may like a good DRAM because our future is set not just through our choices, but by our willingness to explore and find a better way. Greetings from the Lost Valley reservoir. This was part of my scouting trip last week. Specifically, it was part of the Huckleberry excursion. I needed to get out this weekend, my wife needs to get out. And we needed to come north because one of my daughters is working for her aunt for a week. So we just loaded all the camping stuff up, dropped off one daughter brought the others up to this little reservoir and got lucky. Found a open spot right next to the reservoir. Dropped kayaks in the water, a little cut hiking. It's been a red letter day, it's gonna be a short one, because tomorrow morning early, got loaded all up and get back so that we can take care of some other things. But it's still that moment of release. But it brought two things to mind tonight. Well, three, really. First one is I've kind of been hinting on the Facebook group that I had a episode coming up revolving around odd things in nature that's accurate. It's 95% written. I just don't like how it's come together. So I'm not tabling it, but I'm still working on it. And then I hinted about The Winter's Tale, which is also coming, but is only just a little bit written. So those are coming. In part because they are not quite on my mind the way this is. It's been a busy year for everyone. And when we you go off on adventures, as I like to and you'd like to and hundreds and 1000s Maybe different ways. You have to keep in mind as you're doing those things, you're doing mental calculus. Well, that's what some people are doing. I won't call what I do calculus, but you're doing a benefit analysis. And as you shift in responsibilities, those benefit analysis changes. For instance, when I was in my 20s, somebody to invite me to go do something fun. I didn't worry too much about what else was going on. I didn't worry about how much it was going to hurt the next morning. I didn't work. And instead, I went had fun. let the chips fall where they may. And off we went bad kids to that equation. At getting older that equation and it shifts suddenly a one day camping trip doesn't necessarily seem to make the benefit as high as the cost because of the work that it takes to get there. I'm going to be honest, I need to shift my thinking. Because life's not going to slow down. I just have got to learn to accept it. And finding these little one day and two day excursions are going to become the new five day camp trip. And I'm going to have to learn to accept it. There's ways to make it easier. And that's the other thing on my mind. How do you say Simplify to make these things possible. I don't have a big expensive camping rig. I have lots of little things that I have built up over the last 20 years. I still have the hatchet that I bought more than 20 years ago now, but I still have the hatch that I bought 20 years ago, when I was dating my now wife for a camping trip we were going on, because I'd lost my last one that I bought as a teenager. We have camp boxes that had been packed, unused for a year, maybe to multiple coolers, they get more use for house parties than they do going up into the woods. Got a truck that can take us anywhere. But we are tent campers. We are we don't have a trailer, we throw the tent out today we threw the through the kayaks on top of the bed and got it all going that way. That meant leaving some things alone. Well, excuse me, leaving some things at home. Specifically, I have a great campstove that I bought about 11 years ago for a excursion I went on. Well, let's be honest, I always Camp Chef for a friend of mines football team as they were, they went on a football camp up in the mountains and I tagged along and cooked for the coaches and the voice a moment of service so to speak. I left that at home didn't decided that we didn't have space for it. And if you'd seen how the kayaks were sitting on the back of my truck, I may put a picture of it. You'd agree with me. For safety sake leave it at home. So instead of cooking nice meals on this little excursion we roasted hot dogs openfire. Kids loved it. To remind reminder there is simple isn't bad. Complexity isn't good. It's the experience that matters. My oldest daughter couldn't wait to cook on cook on the hot dog stick because he hadn't done it in years. And the six year old couldn't wait to do it because the only time she used the old hot stock stick was making s'mores at home I'm gonna say it again. Simplicity isn't bad. And complexity isn't good. It's what you make of it. So as I sit here between rainstorms because that's what happens when I go camping. We get rained out at least part of it. Everybody, here's got a relaxed look on their face. We're building up the fire again and get ready to pull out the hot dog stick to do some s'mores. Looking at my kids faces, they're smiling. We're missing daughter number two. It's not right to be doing this without her. But we're all having fun. And we're all kind of relaxed. So he doesn't take five days to do it. It just takes the right space to take care of things. And I'll be honest, from a personal end of things, doesn't hurt that cell phone service is spotty and I left my work phone alone at home. So it makes it even better. I'm able to relax so take it for what it's worth friends. pull things back. Find the little things that bring you joy. And don't let busy get in the way of them even if it's a two hour movie, even if it's an hour at the lake it doesn't matter if it brings you back around to the right headspace. Go find yourself some joy friends This is chants with strife seek find from the Lost Valley reservoir, keep seeking my friends. Two things I didn't mention because of when I was recording. One on this trip. One of the new things I tried was at Christmas I was given a hammock and hadn't had a chance to use it yet. The question I have after having done it is why I didn't do it sooner. The wise owl Outfitters hammock that I was given by some close friends is more comfortable than an air mattress more comfortable than an easy chair. Why didn't I do this a long time ago. I'm getting ready to dig holes in my backyard so I can hang it up here at home. So why is owl Outfitters? Good shout out for a wonderful product to you. And if you're looking for a small podcaster to sponsor, I'm offering myself up because I'm declaring your hammock, my official hammock of summer. Great place to read. Great place to sleep great for a good many things including having a cold and frosty beverage in the mid afternoon after kayaking. As I said earlier, I recorded that between rainstorms. And I didn't realize how true that was. The Whitmore family seems to be a good cure for drought. Because within an hour of recording the episode, we had one more downpour and then it took a break and we had we kicked up the fire did s'mores hung out. And as I built the fire back up from that the real storm hit. And by morning we had Oh, three inches of water in the bucket outside my tent, not saying how much actually fell that firewood was soaked. waterproofing on the tent was suspect because it was raining just a little bit on top of all of us in the tent. And here's the secret didn't matter had a great time. It's part of the experience, and it's a good story. Well, friends, that's it for this week's edition of strive seek find. Thank you again for listening. If you'd like to join the discussion, or have ideas for future episodes, hop on over to the strife seek find podcast group on Facebook. Alternatively, if Facebook's not your thing, you can find me on Instagram at strife seek find podcast on Twitter. As at chance Whitmore five. We're even on email. The links for all those are in the show notes below. Until next time, my friends, keep seeking your own brilliant future
