REFLECTION: Many of the hours and days of our lives are spent travelling down old familiar roads. Start here, drive there, turn here, stop there. Get up tomorrow and travel the same route all over again. When we pause to seek out new adventures, we end up thinking and feeling differently.

Husband, Dave, and I have just returned from a ten day trip to Arizona – part work, part play, all fun. While visiting with friends in Tucson, we took advantage of the opportunity to step outside our everyday routine. Our friends had arranged glider rides over the Sonoran Desert with the Tucson Soaring Club, and a descent into the limestone caves at Kartchner Caverns in the Chihuahua Desert. Talk about the heights and the depths on back to back days!

It was my first experience in a glider. I enjoyed the quiet calm of sailing through the air – no motors, no PA announcements, no pretzels, no cookies, no distractions. Just me, the pilot, the plane and the hawks enjoying a 360 degree view of a desert and mountains that had evolved over thousands of years.

It was my first experience trekking into caves below the surface of the earth. Above ground nothing to write home about – sand, hills, cactus and scrub. Below ground – another world entirely. Spectacular stalactites and stalagmites, intricate and colorful formations of glossy sediments deposited minute by minute, hour by hour, by thousands of droplets of water over tens of thousands of years.

ACTION: Both the heights and the depths bring new perspectives on life.  From up high and down below, life’s surface concerns grow smaller and more distant until they fall away completely- trumped by the beauty, peace and splendor of this moment in time and place.

What a gift to get away – to discover a fresh perspective on the world in which we live, love, work and travel.

What adventures – large or small – near or far – might bring you a new way of looking at the everyday-ness of life?

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: A couple of observations by John Muir:

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.”

RESOURCE OF THE WEEK: Add a mini getaway adventure to your day with a visit to the Kartchner Caverns State Park website – featuring video, photos, and the story of the caverns’ discovery and protection: http://azstateparks.com/Parks/KACA/index.html

READERS WRITE: In response to the last Pause message, ‘What’s On Your Plate?’, reader GN writes: What a timely message for me, especially, but I think for most people. There really IS a tendency to say “Sure, no problem, I can fit that in!”  Then, before we know it, workload expands to exceed hours available. I know that I have recently been looking at what I must do as opposed to what I can do. Your message in today’s Pause was a great reinforcement for me to stay on track and be reasonable, practical, and balanced in time and task management.  I will try and refer to it routinely to keep from overloading my plate! Thanks!