Paddling

Driving around the Colombia River Gorge I am awestruck by the natural wonders and the surreal beauty that the area provides through a backdrop of vibrant and alive countryside. Living in a world that is surrounded by beautiful landscapes, gorgeous scenery and amazing rivers, I have often wondered about the unknown places you can only get to through the water. The places between the banks of the river that are covered with a panoramic view of trees and foliage, that many people never get to appreciate or catch a glimpse of. My love for exploring and seeing new things, my genuine curiosity of life and what is out there, and my enthusiasm to try a new sport that so many people are amazingly passionate about, lead me to take a two day kayaking course through Wet Planet.



From the moment I arrived, and heard the passion in the kayak instructors words, I could see there authentic love for a sport that for them changed their life. Their eyes lit up when they spoke of the water, their sincere love for both the river and paddling for me sealed the deal, I was intrigued. I definitely needed to see what this was all about.




Through the course of the two days I learned a lot about myself, the river, and a sport that is rewarding and fulfilling. The course is for beginners, a chance to get your feet wet, take time with awesome instructors, and see if you fall in love with paddling as so many tend to do. Susan and Andy, the incredible teachers, taught us all the basics and all the logistics empowering us with the base knowledge you need to get started. Everything from safety, kayak equipment, how to paddle, and how to exit your boat to reading the water, what you are looking for and how a river works when you are paddling downstream.



The two days proved to give me just what I was looking for. My growing curiosity of the remarkable places that are hidden all around me began to be satisfied. As I paddled the waters, looked around at the beauty that was ever so slowly being etched into my heart, I was thankful for this time that I was given. The peaceful flow of water lead me to unbelievable rapids and as I used the skills that I was taught, I realized why there was genuine passion behind the instructor’s words as they spoke on the sport that they love. As Susan and Andy watched, lead, and motivated us through the water, I was energized when I began to catch on and perfect the skills and excited even when I would miss the mark knowing that they were there to coach and strengthen my abilities. Both of them with their calm manner and gentle teachings lead the way down the river and directed me through my journey.



It has been a week since the two day class and needless to say I am a proud owner of a new Kayak… Well used kayak but definitely new to me and I am completely enamored with the sport and the areas that it will lead me to. All over the world or in my back yard, I will see the beauty that is waiting to be seen and remember to be thankful for every minute of the time I have on the water. Thank you Wet Planet for giving me the skills I need to get started, you were amazing.

Force of the push

I have thought on this subject often. I have written on it, created controversy with it, and processed different opinions on it. So I will write about it once more. Contemplate on truths and listen to what I know to be true….

Why do you think it is that we always want what we can’t have? Do you think that we would want it if we could actually have it? Or better yet, would we want it if we had to force it to happen. Or would the force of the push be enough to halt our hearts and change our minds… Maybe it would it become the clarity that we need in a foggy haze of what we only think will make us happy?

Well I have found that wanting something is part of life. I think that the urge to have something else, something that seems so right in your head, yet is just out of reach, is intoxicating and habit forming. May it be circumstances, life, fate or whatever you want to call it, you have to wonder if that thing you want, that you can’t get enough of in your head, is really better kept as a thought, a fantasy, in this life that is stifling and stagnant and desperately in need of excitement at times. As time goes on, life plays out, we realize habits are stronger than we realize. If the goal is to break the habit, maybe with time we can see that habits are nothing more than that, and once we fracture the habit in the slightest way, we will be able to see truth.



Is this romanticized version on life what keeps a dreamer a dreamer, a lover a lover, and a fighter a forever fighter for something better, something great?

Maybe

Maybe there are times in our life that the habit of the want is stronger than what we actually know to be true and just maybe stronger than the authenticity of the dream, which all too often is a skewed idea of reality and what is true.

Or maybe there are exceptional times when there is a reason why you just can’t give up. When you know that the thing you can’t get out of your head is your true happiness. Your piece that is missing from your spirit, that light that makes you shine stronger when you have it, then when you don’t.



In the end we all are the same in our humanity. We all have seen things we wanted but couldn’t have, thought of places we are eager to visit but don’t know when or how we can get there, and we all have felt love and then lost it. These all exhibit our longing for something else, illustrates how without true experience we decide for our self that it will be right for us. As I progress in this life, I am finding there are few things that are real and true and actual. My God that is leading my path is real, my one true thing. I have decided that in this life, if I find myself longing for something, if I begin wondering about what could have been, or never was, it is then that I will turn my head up. I will believe that if I don’t have it, or if life just isn’t going the way I want, there is a reason. I will continue to be silent and listen, opening my heart and surrendering to my path.

Quick to judge

Today I was thinking about people, about the completely unique qualities that separate one of us from another. I was thinking about the matter of judgment, to judge another, what that looks like and how it even sounds just saying it out loud. Our world is full of people that are quick to judge and quick to tell you how to live a better life. We are quick to judge another for a wrong they have done, or a decision they have made. We judge situations people are in or circumstances they are involved in. It seems daily I see people speak on things they don’t know about. Speak on others lives or choices, their rights or their wrongs, and then feel completely justified with what they decide to be true for another.


In a perfect world we would all have been trained from an early age the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. We would all have been made to see hurt and pain, and then directly relate that to actions that were taken or words that were spoken. We would all be able to correlate the knowledge of our actions with the effects they create. Then we could rest assure that we all had the same perception of common sense, a general awareness of right and wrong. We would feel the same hurt and feel equal pains. Of course with this vision, It would be completely reliant on the fact that we would have all been taught the same in our morals or ethics, seen the same things and gone through the same trials, therefore making common sense a general acuity.



Since we all come from completely unique, diverse and exclusive backgrounds, is there really such a thing as common sense? Does everyone really have the same outlined description of right and wrong or crime and punishment?




We all are completely different in our pasts, where we have been and who we have met along the way. Our trials vary vastly from person to person, country to country. We feel things and see life entirely from different standpoints due to our different curvy roads that we are on. Because what each of us has been through, and where each of us has been, makes our outlooks on life neither right nor wrong but as distinctive as each and every one of us. How can I judge another when I have never seen what they have seen, felt what they have felt? As alike as we are in humanity, conditions and situations throughout our life play a role and without knowledge or forethought begin to shape our ever changing paths creating different views on life.




We all are beautiful because we are utterly irreplaceable. We speak differently and sing differently, we look different and think different. Who are any of us to judge another, when we don't truly know what we are speaking about… In a perfect world right and wrong, crime and punishment, would be black and white. Common sense would be just that, and we could rest assure that we were all on the same page. But we are different; our perceptions on life are diverse. I have come to know this... if we continue to look inside ourselves, be quick to assess our own identities rather than others, we are more likely to create inside what we are so eager to have others live up to.


“It is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind, that you alone and unguarded, commit a wrong unto others, and therefore unto yourself.” ~ Kahlil Gibran