Trust In the Hand of God

I am a bad kayaker. Well, maybe not. But I don’t like it. I guess I can’t like everything we do here though. I like water. I like paddling fast through the currents, feeling the water splash my face and slosh over my kayak. My fear for one factor of the experience overpowers any and all of these joys, however. When (that’s right, when--not if) we flip over in our kayaks, we are simply to calmly tap on the bottom of our boat three times and wait for the nearest kayaker to come rescue us. From there, usually the person will reach over and perform what is known as a “hand of god” by reaching over and flipping me upright. On occasion, we also use t-rescues where I am responsible for pulling myself upright, using my rescuer as a lever. What they fail to take into account, is that during this time when I am supposed to be “calm” I am upside down, strapped in a kayak--underwater!! On our last day of kayaking, we actually experienced real rapids and eddies. Before each rapid, I would tell myself that if, or maybe when, I flipped, I would not panic, but tap and wait for the rescue. Well, I flipped three times, and bailed three times. I never even took the time to wait, I just got out of that dang kayak as fast as I could. Oh well. On this one thing, I am very satisfied with being forever labeled as a pansy. Or maybe just someone with complete lack of trust in the hand of god.

School goes on however. Our newest endeavor, surfing, suits me just fine. It is right up my alley as far as watersports go and hopefully I will be able to improve the more we go. We also get to start rock climbing this week which is sure to be a good time. For my more academic classes, I continue to be kept busy with lots of readings about families and how to someday have my own successful one. So really, can life get any better than this? I spend half of my week outdoors, learning skills I’ve always wanted to learn. I spend the other half of my week learning eternal truths that will help me have a loving and successful family of my own someday. Every day of the week, I am in the same beautiful, yet mostly undiscovered country. And, when I’m done here, I get to go home and back to regular life while always holding onto and remembering the great things I’ve done here. Can life get any better? I submit that it can not!