{"id":4631,"date":"2025-05-16T07:57:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4631"},"modified":"2025-05-16T07:57:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:57:29","slug":"lifes-greatest-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/lifes-greatest-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Life’s Greatest Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

In his role as a feature writer for an outdoor magazine, Mark Adams writes about great adventures.

Until a decade ago, however, he had never experienced one firsthand.

All that changed when Adams hired a mountain guide and decided he would retrace the steps of the celebrated explorer Hiram Bingham (the chief inspiration for Indiana Jones), who in 1911 happened upon the extraordinary \u201clost\u201d city of Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful and head-scratching archeological sites in the world.

What historians know is that the Incas constructed this settlement about 600 years ago high in the Andes Mountains of Peru.

After a century of research and speculation, however, its intended function largely remains unknown.

Today it is a mecca for tourists; New Agers seeking harmonic resonance from the power of crystals; wilderness hikers who want to challenge themselves physically on the Inca Trail; and others who are endlessly fascinated by the mystery of its meaning.

Adams, for his part, simply wanted to survive.\u00a0He was forced to admit that he had never once slept in a tent.

His book Turn Right at Machu Picchu <\/em>became a bestseller \u2013 a combination adventure story, comedy, and historical tour de force.

At one point Adams and his guide paused in a primitive mountainous village so remote that it didn\u2019t even appear on maps. He struck up a conversation, as best he could, with two young boys who came to peer at the strangers.

\u201cWhere do you live?\u201d they asked.\u00a0\u201cI live in New York,\u201d said Adams.\u00a0\u201cHave you ever heard of New York?\u201d

\u201cNo,\u201d said the boys.\u00a0\u201cNew York,\u201d said Adams, \u201cis in the United States.\u00a0Do you know the Estados Unidos?\u201d

\u201cNo,\u201d said the boys.\u00a0They had never heard of the United States.\u00a0\u201cDo you know where Cuzco is?\u201d he countered, citing one of Peru\u2019s most ancient cities.

\u201cYes,\u201d they said.\u00a0 Adams went on to explain that he lived north of Cuzco.\u00a0With that the conversation seemed to pause, and Adams figured they might have reached the extent of their common ground.

Then the boys asked, \u201cIs it true that Michael Jackson is dead?\u201d

And just like that, the world suddenly became a lot smaller.

It\u2019s said that Coca-Cola has always been driven by the goal to provide every person on earth the opportunity to drink a Coke.\u00a0If global human culture is united by just a few things, they apparently include soda pop and the King of Pop.\u00a0

What\u2019s the one prayer you would offer for the whole world today?\u00a0What\u2019s the one thing you hope every man, woman, and child might have the opportunity to experience?

Perhaps this: that no one would ever have to go to bed at night crying for lack of the love of God. Or that people everywhere, even in the face of the most uncertain circumstances, would discover that the words of the medieval contemplative Julian of Norwich are in fact true:

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.<\/em>

And life\u2019s greatest adventure?

That would be encountering the only One who is able to make that so.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here In his role as a feature writer for an outdoor magazine, Mark Adams writes about great adventures. Until a decade ago, however, he had never experienced one firsthand. All that changed when Adams hired a mountain guide and decided he would retrace the steps of the celebrated explorer Hiram Bingham (the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[927],"class_list":["post-4631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archaeology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4633,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions\/4633"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}