“It’s bad manners to keep an adventure waiting.” ~Unknown 

My mother would appreciate that quote. She lived into her mid-eighties and went through some hard times, but she was always up for an adventure. It was her mindset, even when funds were tight, and a great example for me as the third of her seven kids.

She was with us on our first trip to Ireland in 2006. I said, “Mom, would you like to go to Ireland with us?” I swear she started her packing list before she said yes. She didn’t let health issues and knee troubles stop her. I remember her delight as we trekked through a muddy pasture with cows watching us. She milked cows by hand as a child in the Florida panhandle.

I’ve been back to Ireland many times since that trip, but adventures exist close to home, too. A visit to a museum, a new restaurant, a new hiking trail, a cooking class. Something out of our normal routines and perhaps with a bit of a risk (safety first!). 

And books. Books are filled with adventures! We can have a grand time as “armchair adventurers.” I’m never going to be a spy or a jump out of a helicopter, except in the pages of a book.

I read Mary Stewart’s classic The Moonspinners as a young girl. Sitting up in a tree in my small New England hometown, I imagined myself wandering the hills of Crete, having adventures. 

My own writing sends me—and my readers—on all sorts of adventures!

At the moment, I’m deep into another wild adventure with Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan on the Irish coast.

Sometimes it’s enough to research an adventure. After our rainy summer and catastrophic floods, I have wanderlust. Various commitments prevent us from traveling at the moment, but I’m thumbing guidebooks and playing with the possibilities of our next travel adventure. 

In the meantime, adventures closer to home beckon. I won’t keep them waiting.

Enjoy!