In March 2017, our family of six moved from a small village outside Paris into a tiny cottage bordering a cemetery at the foot of the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) cathedral in Montmartre. It was a thrilling decision, one that would remind us of the brilliance of the adjacent possible—the fact that alternate realities are always hovering on our current one. Even though it was a brutal unplugging (rental contract, schools, fledgling friendships in France) and required a lot of courage and expense, it was a euphoric feeling to exit the life that wasn’t working for an option we hadn’t seen because it felt unadjacent and impossible.

I recently found a journal entry from those first euphoric days in Paris. My writing was filled with astonishment at our crossing to a life that immediately soothed and solved so many challenges we felt would require an early forfeiture of living abroad. The most curious thing I wrote about was an oath to live a sort of “Reverse Tarzan” life. Rather than dutifully trying to learn and do exactly the customary thing according to the rules of others, I would actively seek to follow my gut instinct for what I felt was true or important. For what I loved.

In a world of increasing uncertainty, we often try to force or feign certainty however we can. Beyond not panning out, that hustle can lead us to take for granted the things we love in the pursuit of securing a future we feel certain is around the corner. What if there is an adjacent possible that would alleviate stress in both career and personal........

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