The Wheel of Fortune

I encourage you to look at cancellations, delays, unexpected changes, and experiences that don't meet your initial expectations with mindfulness. These divergent experiences are just part of the roulette-playing variety of life. And for some, it is the nascent of the adventure they are seeking. Magic in the mundane can be discovered through orchestrated travel as well as viewing your “routine” life through a different lens.

Visiting a traditional windmill in Central Portugal

If you are after once in a lifetime experiences, follow the “mishaps.” Just like in the movies, this is when the plots starts to get a little deeper and more interesting. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I can not tell you how I ended up riding on an empty banana truck in Southern Guatemala but I am POSITIVE it occurred because our original plans had changed. And there lies the crossroad between an exciting and joyous adventure or a rigid angry reaction to a change in expected plans. Then, the second ingredient to the spontaneous travel adventure, the power of human connection, took over.

Once many years ago, my father-in-law took my family to go see a working windmill in central Portugal. We didn't have to drive far from his house but with two children with car sickness, it was a feat to just arrive without incident. When we got to the windmill, the door was closed and no one was hanging around the grounds. We could have just given up and forgotten about our original plans. But then we saw an older woman walking towards a nearby house. My Father-in-law asked her where the windmill owner was and, looking surprised, she said he should be there.

Through kindness and communication, we voiced our desire to show our girls the fascinating art and science behind grain grinding by the powers of the windmill. While it did help that my father-in-law spoke Portuguese, please know that the kindness of the heart triumphs over any deficiencies in language skills! Ultimately, the woman made a trip to her house and back to give us the mill owner's phone number. Then after sharing our story again with the mill owner, we were able to entice him into returning to his mill. He said he always has wheat to grind and he would meet us at the windmill in an hour.

Well, if anyone knows Portugal, there is always a cafe near by. So we ended up exploring the most beautiful cafe with an amazing hillside view before heading back to visit the windmill. See, one of the perks of changed plans is extra experiences you couldn't even imagine having. So not only did we get a personalized tour of a working windmill but also enjoyed an hour sipping a beautiful cup of coffee overlooking a scenic hillside. But more than the unique experiences, the experience also reinforced our faith in the power of human connection.