Customer Reviews

I Married Adventure: Looking at Life Through the Lens of Possibility

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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What a fun ride - not to mention funny, encouraging, inspiring, challenging,uplifting,and honest! I have attended four Women of Faith conferences (makes a great mom and daughter or a friends' weekend getaway:) and have always been encouraged and challenged by Luci Swindoll. Having heard her speak allows me to "hear" her as I read. However, you do not have to have heard her to get the full benefit of her story. When she states she "married adventure," she is not kidding. And the adventure is not just from her actual experiences, but from her whole attitude toward life. She has learned that the "special" days are not the only ones to savor. Ms. Swindoll pulls the reader into her belief that every day is a beautifully wrapped and intricate gift from God and we have the opportunity to open this fabulous gift every single day, hour, and minute of our lives. Although her life path has certainly been different from mine (she has remained single, had a challenging career in business, gives speeches to HUGE groups, and has traveled the world while I followed the more "traditional" path of marriage, motherhood, etc. I have not survived amazing travel adventures, I did survive two teenage boys:), her joy and enthusiasm are contagious and applicable to and life and any situation. This is NOT one of those "I am wonderful, my life is wonderful, and everything has been wonderful" books(you know, like some of the Christmas letters we have all received). Ms Swindoll is incredibly open about her shortcomings and mistakes and how she has, like the rest of us, been discplined by God to deal with these things.

I just cannot give this book a high enough recommendation. You will be encouraged as well as challenged, feel great joy and some sadness, and often find yourself asking "why in the world would she want to travel THERE and/or do THAT???" But at the end, I guarantee you will be looking at every detail of your life with new and curious eyes and looking to your faith in God as permeating each of those details in amazing ways. I know I will read this again and again and I can't wait to get to the Women of Faith conference this summer!(...)

Long before the luxury of "having it all" Luci Swindoll came up in a time when women's choices were "either/or": either you got married, left the rat race & disappeared into the world of family, or you had a career & adventures. Luci Swindoll chose the latter on a path of Faith & exploration.

I MARRIED ADVENTURE is a great way to think about changing your mundane, little life into one of richness. It will show you how to fill your days with design, how to gather your stories, & thus transform your regular days & occurrences into experiences worth living.

Rebeccasreads highly recommends I MARRIED ADVENTURE as a fine example of journal keeping & an engaging personal account of squeezing the most out of a life led by God.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

John 10:10 is one of my favorite Bible verses. Obviously, it's one of Luci Swindoll's, as well. In I Married Adventure: Looking At Life Through the Lens of Possibility, she shares her delight in once-in-a-lifetime events, such as seeing leopards on an African safari. She also encourages us to enjoy every seemingly-mundane minute. Watching a bird in our own backyard can be just as wondrous as viewing exotic animals on another continent, as long as we have the right attitude. Every moment is a gift from God and He wants us to love and appreciate our lives for the time we have here.

If you've come to a point in your life where you wonder about the "road not taken" as the poet Frost described, you might enjoy reading this book. I did! Sometimes you may catch yourself wondering, what if I hadn't married, had children? What if I'd had a brilliant career, traveled more, been totally free of duty to primary family members to follow my bliss-- what would that life had been like?

The author tells you about her life based on those original choices. She also explains what is missed when you make the choices she did. Reading the book made me feel I traveled some of her life journeys with her, seeing the influences which shaped her and sampling some of the experiences. It's very satisfying.

We're all given the raw clay of life to shape as best we can, so it's fascinating to see how others sculpt theirs. I have a lot of the same interests as the author: music, art, theater, writing, poetry, spirituality, literature so it was great to see how she pursued those and gave me ideas how to do more of them in my own life.

In other areas we were different: her interest in Africa, animals, archeology, how things work so it was fun to see how those differences played out.

The author examines her life with candor. She helps you see that out of the negatives in life can come positives and some of your greatest learning. Her zest for life and continued growth and learning inspired me to re-focus on what is still beguiling me to pursue. Her "to-learn and experience" list include some of my goals: learn a foreign language, get an advanced degree, live in Europe, teach art history, have a pet, ask/answer deep questions, keep journaling, go to plays more, learning more about humor and its constructs....

As you can see I was inspired and challenged by this book. And although I'm deeply spiritual, I was glad the author wove her spirituality naturally through the book so the reader never feels preached at, or that it is a book for those who think just like her. She examples how she lives her faith through her life as it undergirds and supports her. By reading about her path, it takes some of the wondering and wistfulness away of wanting to know what it would have been like because you feel like you took the journey with her and now you know. It frees you to construct the rest of your life path using some of the wisdom gleaned from hers.

"I Married Adventure" is a personal conversation and reflection of a 70+ year old woman who has gained the insight that adventure isn't about travel, or even experiences but of the mind. It reminds us that a person can travel 10,000 miles and miss the point of the experience or have a personal revelation and never leave their living room.

Adventure is of the spirit - where and when you direct your attention and how you perceive your environment. It is not reserved for the young or old, the rich or the poor, but for anyone that takes hold and wants to experience it.

"I Married Adventure" is an easy to read and hard to put down book that should be read and later read again to remind us what is too easy to forget - That life is a gift that shouldn't be squandered.

Excellent reading, keeps your attention wondering what she is up to next. Adventure is a good description of Luci's life.

Luci's appreciation of the gift of life is to be admired. We can all take a lesson from her challenges and victories in her walk with God, family, and friends...this book is a wonderful gift to us.

Being in the same age group as the author, I really related to her experiences and reactions. Since my sister normally reads only Wall Street Journal and a few magazines but read this eagerly, I knew it was going to be special. Plus, my copy was inscribed to me as a gift from Luci Swindoll...so it is special. And now I've purchased three of her books as gifts for others.

I enjoyed this but did not love it as other reviewers did. This is certainly a lovely and heartfelt book. Swindoll's recollections about her childhood and her way into faith are inspiring and just plain interesting. However, I really expected more Adventure. We only get to hear a little but about her travels and I wish that had been a greater focus of the novel. I think the author is a very satisfied human being with a nice life but not a particularly adventurous one, so, for me, the title was bit misleading.