The Great Unknown



Growing up, my favorite cartoons were Winnie the Pooh movies, although I'm not sure 'favorite' accurately describes an obsession that followed me well into my twenties so far. Perhaps my favorite movie from the hundred acre wood is Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.

By far, my favorite song within the movie is the one linked above. "Adventure is a Wonderful Thing." My love for this song is mostly due to the morbidly hilarious attitude of Owl, who attempts to convince the woodland creatures that adventure is a wonderful thing, even while mentioning avalanching boulders and suggesting that they will experience great duress on the trip. Even his end salute to the group is horribly pessimistic "I salute you! And those who are doomed to never return, I salute you twice!"

As I stand on the precipice of my next adventure I find myself split between the two attitudes of optimism and pessimism. I believe this will be a Grand Adventure, perhaps my Grandest Yet, but many things about it give me pause.

But much like our woodland friends, I'm taking all the advice I can get, (I promise to beware of heffalumps), studying the map, and shedding all the extra weight that I can. (Goodbye, precious book collection. Goodbye!)

In all this preparation and craziness I'm incredibly grateful to have a much more solid grasp on confidence than Pooh and his friends, because I know (and am constantly reminded) that my success and safety in this Grand Adventure rests far less on me than it does on God.

Knowing that my God goes before me means that I can be as confident at the beginning of my adventure as Pooh and his friends were towards the end of theirs, because my God is bigger than anything I could face, even the Skullasaurus.

So here I dangle on the precipice, ready to leap.

Because after all, adventure is a hoot and a half.


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