I am hopeless romantic.  Not in the sense that I'm the typical "Snow White, Cinderella Wannabe" who's waiting for Prince Charming.  No.  My romantic mind has always been and will be drawn to the magical, beautiful and glorious world of Fantasy.

When I was about ten or eleven, my dad read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien aloud to me.  It was the first time I had encountered a real fantasy realm, one with a deep historical background so tangible, it was hard to believe that it wasn't real.  Like any other kid, I proceeded to read The Lord of the Rings, after finishing The Hobbit.

This one story, The Lord of the Rings, has defined my life in so many ways.  To list all of them would be almost impossible, because this story touches my life on a multitude of levels.   Naturally, I have good memories associated with the books, the movies and soundtracks, memories which no dark cloud could ever cover.  The memories are but a small factor in comparison to what makes the story real.

What's real to me is the adventure...the trials...the dark forces at work...the heroes rising from unlikely places...the struggles of relationships...the fears and doubts...the betrayals...the lies...the truths...the beginning...and the end.

For as long as I can remember I have been searching for Middle Earth, or a world like it.  I've looked for a bridge, maybe even something like a Wardrobe, that could possibly connect my world to another.  I've gone looking for adventure, be it in my head, heart or even on the streets, and at school.  I've tried to find a problem to fix, in which I might be the key or hero and solve everything. Even though no battles with swords, horses and arrows exists, I still looked for them. So many times I strained my ears to hear that "still small voice" telling me of my destiny or what I should do in dark moment. I've taken various trinkets in my hands and hoped they held some secret, magical power that would change my life. For years, I searched, and searched for a Samwise...but never found them...

I was a hopeless adventurer with no world meant for adventure.  For so long, I threw myself into a myriad of fantasy books because they were what I believed was real.  The worlds I read about, the people, the struggles, were real, they were just hiding, and I needed to find them.  Of course, like I said before, I looked, but never found them.  The reason I never found them, wasn't because they didn't exist...It was because I was just looking in all the wrong places.

The adventure world doesn't lie in a book hidden away somewhere in a dusty library, it lies here in this world.  The battles, small voices, the fears and doubts, the callings they all exist! They just look different.  I can say this because recently, I have found those, well, for lack of a better phrase "fantastical moments" . They totally took me by surprise and came in a form I least expected.  Seriously.  I'll try and tell you some of them.

Last week a couple of friends were supposed to pick me up from the airport.  While I was waiting at the curb I heard the following words inside my head "YOU NEED TO PRAY FOR YOUR FRIEND'S SAFETY."  I did a double take, but without questioning, I prayed for my friend's safety.  As I waited out in the cold, rainy weather, I got the feeling that something was out of place, or that something was going to happen.  Two minutes later, I got a text from one of my friends saying they had been "slightly delayed" and would be there soon.   I don't know exactly how, but when I read the words "slightly delayed", I translated it as "something happened with the car." After looking out at the weather again and seeing the rain, something deep inside me said "there's been a car accident".  Of course I asked myself..."My friends?" Without even an answer, I knew that it was my friends.  Five minutes later my phone buzzed.  It was one of my friends.  They had been in a car accident.

The still small voice exists.  LISTEN FOR IT.

I faced a fear this week.  It's not a fear like "I'm going to jump off a bridge."  To some it would appear small, but it was big thing for me.  I fear getting hurt, and I also fear being on the outside of things and hearing the word "No." I had to make a choice this week in which I could walk into a situation where the outcome would be the answer "no".  I wrestled with this for quite sometime.  Would it be better to not go into battle and remain safe from a distance, or should I participate and try once again knowing that the outcome could be very well the thing I fear most.  Aesop once said "It is hard to be brave some a safe distance."  So I decided to enter the field, and see what happened.  To say the outcome was a dissapointment would not be truthful.  I didn't hear the word "yes" in fact, I heard "no".  One thing is for sure though, I walked into battle strong, and confident and even with the outcome I LEFT stronger and more confident.  I proved to myself that the word "no" has no power over me and just because one person may say it, it doesn't define who I am, or what I will do with my life.

I drew my sword and fought back a monster threatening to drive me back into the pit of darkness.  I stood my ground and the beast coward in fear, not me.

One last thing...I found a Samwise.  If you've read The Lord of the Rings, then you know that sentence doesn't need any kind of explanation or elaboration.  That's just how amazing the character of Samwise Gamgee really is.

The adventure is REAL!! It doesn't look like fantasy novel, but if you slow down just for one moment and turn to look for it in a different direction...you will find it.