And Now You Are At the First Step
My friend Larry is a poet. He had a reading at a local coffee shop last week. His theme was poems that expressed what we around here call "Up North." For us that often means the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness up along the Canadian border. In one of his poems about a particularly difficult canoe trip he wrote the following:

Adventure begins when control ends.

I sat up on that one. I looked up and then saw a Helen Keller quote on the wall of the shop:

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

Now that is actually a portion of a longer quote which goes like this:

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure.

Anyway you look at it, an adventure is a time of giving up control. It is, within reason, hopefully, letting go of what is comfortable and familiar and even safe. It is stepping away from all the normal routines and moving into the unknown. And if we don't know as much as we would like, we are certainly moving beyond those places where we can exercise complete control.

Which is right where the 1st Step of AA begins. Admitting powerlessness (lack of control) is a BIG step in the right direction because it forces one to look for help, support, and direction. Admitting powerlessness is the time when the adventure really does begin since new things and new insights and deep lessons are almost always there to be learned.

You don't have to go "Up North" to a wild canoe trip to experience it. Just look around. See what is beyond your ability to control. Then hang on for the adventure.