Adventure Question: What kinds of things do you do to get out of a blue mood? Whatever your answer, next time have a mini-adventure and come back to tell the tale.

One morning after days and days of blue funk, I was totally tempted to sit on my rear instead of going to aquafit class. Now this isn’t like me as I love the pool and seeing my friends there, so I had to give myself a talking to.

“Self? Just what the devil are you trying to do now? Are you shooting your fitness goals in the foot? Do you want to be lonely and fat your entire life? Isn’t 50+ years of fat enough?”

As you can see, my self-talk wasn’t stellar.

I decided to try a different voice.

“Hey there self, what’s up? Wouldn’t it feel great to splash around and see your friends? So what if 1000 people don’t come to read your blog, if even 1 person reads it and is encouraged, isn’t that enough?”

Uh, as you can see, I tried to lie to myself.

I decided to mix the tactics.

“Self, I know you would prefer that the world beat a major path to your blog so you could feel really, really, heard, but how can you have an adventure blog without adventures? Don’t you like adventures?”

Gotcha! I do love adventures, and trust me, couch sitting is not one.

So I went to aquafit class and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Afterwards, walking back to the car, I even managed to notice it was a beautiful day. A cascade of flowers flowed down the embankment next to the sidewalk, so I stopped to take a photo of myself smiling in my hat (just in case I needed future proof for “self” that getting out of the house and going to aquafit class is a good thing).

I was focusing on my phone to take said snapshot when a lady whom I did not know (who I later discovered was named Donna)stopped on her way to Yoga class and asked, “Are you writing right now?”

OMG, is this lady freakin’ physic?

Then I realized she was looking at the journal that I’d stuck under my arm.

“Yes I am,” I replied, feeling a bit of a fraud after my blue funkiness of late.

“Good for you, you’ve inspired me. I want to write, but haven’t been.”

We discussed her writing, my blog and a quote which I thought might be Stephen King’s; The writer in question was asked how does one become a writer, and the writer replied, “Writers write.”

Since Donna isn’t really physic, she hadn’t the ability to have read even one stinking word of my writing through the closed notebook. A light bulb went off as I realized it was the mere act of my writing that had encouraged her, not my words. My action made a difference.

I thanked her for her kind comments and took myself off to Descanso Gardens to “smell the lilacs”. After all, adventures are found first in the heart and then, in the world.

Here’s a small video tour and I hope your enjoy seeing the lilacs as much as I. Adventure on everybody!

How did you like the lilacs?