Accepting the Call to Adventure

By Kelly Benthall

Introducing The Fire Circle: A Guest Post Series from Call for Heroines

Around every community fire, there’s room for more than one voice. It’s time to feature some guest voices on Call for Heroines. I don’t have a regular schedule for these, but they’ll come when I feel inspired to share. The Fire Circle is where I hand the mic to smart, bold, and interesting women, sometimes flying under the radar, saying things that matter. I believe in creating space for more heroines at the fire, because when one of us speaks with truth and power, we all get a little warmer.

This space isn’t just about my story. It’s about all of us heroines. Pull up a chair. Listen in. We’ve made a space for you here.

Introducing Kelly Benthall. I noticed Kelly because she reminded me of my own journey (from my early days). She ditched the life she knew and took off with her husband with a carry-on bag and a thirst for adventure. She’s building her Extraordinary Life.

Where the call to adventure found us barefoot in the jungle - and we said yes. (AZULIK City of Arts: Tulum, Mexico)

The first time I felt the nudge, I ignored it. You know the one - that quiet whisper that says maybe this isn’t the life you’re meant to keep living. We had the house, the routine, the very grown-up calendar of obligations. We weren’t unhappy. Just... stuck in a loop that didn’t feel like living.

Then the whisper turned into a tug.
And eventually, a yell.

So we did something wild: we walked away from the careers we’d built in oil and gas and boarded a plane.

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We didn’t run from something. We ran toward something else.
Something we didn’t have words for yet - only a knowing that we were meant to slow down, reconnect, and start listening to the life waiting for us beyond the noise.

We cleared out the house.
Said goodbye to our six grown kids.
Hugged our grandbabies.
Packed our carry-ons.
And began testing out a new way of living.

First stop: Tulum. A jungle Airbnb with a rooftop pool, no party scene, and no Wi-Fi strong enough to stream a single escape. We focused on movement, rest, and not panicking when two of our kids were hospitalized back home. (Yes, really. Slow travel slows everything except your emotions.)

That first month taught us something huge: you can love your people deeply and still live far away.
You can want more from life without being ungrateful for it.
And you don’t have to be fearless to start something wildly new; you just have to be willing.

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Since then, we’ve lived in 11 countries. We spend one month at a time in Airbnbs, immersing ourselves in the language, food, and quirks of each place. We’ve broken through language barriers at dinner parties, bickered in train stations, wandered vineyards, scuba-dived in Mauritius, and learned (the hard way) that altitude sickness doesn’t care how adventurous you feel that day.

Some people said we were running away.
I think we were finally running home to ourselves.

What we’ve found on this journey isn’t just scenery. It’s healing. Especially from the emotional debris we didn’t realize we’d packed - unprocessed grief, old family patterns, burnout, and the deep ache of missing people while still choosing yourself.

And the best part? We’re just getting started.

"I didn’t want a one-way ticket to retirement. I wanted a passport to possibility."
— Retired, Roaming and Rooted

You don’t have to quit your job and live out of a suitcase to accept your own call to adventure.
But you do have to listen for it.
The whisper.
The tug.
The knowing.

And when it comes - don’t silence it.
Don’t shove it behind productivity hacks and what-ifs.

Let it take the wheel for a while.
It just might lead you home.

About the author:
Kelly Benthall is a writer, slow traveler, and early retiree who ditched the blueprint in search of something more honest. She now lives out of a carry-on and writes about transformation, memory, connection, and second chapters at The Benthalls on Substack.