Get Out There And Look

It is Women’s History Month so I am going to feature quotes from famous women. I LOVED this quote from Sacajawea, a Native American and the only woman on the Lewis & Clark Expedition into the American West. She helped the men forge the land and rivers, discovering the Louisiana Territory. She was only seventeen when she went on this grand adventure in 1805. As a woman in a party of men, Sacajawea served as a symbol of peace to other natives as they encountered the group. Her services in interpreting for the explorers and acting as an ambassador for the terrain, as she had traveled as a child many of the spaces they eventually encountered, were invaluable. In the end both Lewis & Clark credit her with the success of their peaceful journey.

She had the courage to go looking, even with a group of men who did not speak her language. She wasn’t given much choice about going, yet she turned it into one of the pivotal points in American History. She dared to believe that she could do what no other person of her gender ever did. AND, she showed courage, adventure and strength in all aspects of that adventure. And she did all that as a teenager…and today we have a hard time getting our kids to want to learn to drive! Oh, how times change!

I admire Sacajawea’s mental stamina and courage as she traveled with strangers. Sometimes it feels that in this modern time we often do the same. We live each day passing people we may not know, being courageous to live our lives, and we do it over and over again. I’m not sure we think of our lives as a grand adventure, and yet I think we should. None of us know what tomorrow will bring. So we can either face each day with fear and trepidation, or we can approach the unknown as an amazing opportunity to see, explore and serve as an ambassador for ourselves. I think Sacajawea was right, it is amazing the things you find when you bother to look for them.

Let me encourage you to harness your own inner adventurer and face your day with curiosity and joy. Adventures await us all if we are only open to get out there and look!