Just Keep Paddling

 

Life is very full right now. Sometimes it's awesome, and sometimes it feels like I'm being forced to ride a roller coaster over and over again. I'm laughing and crying at the same time. 

I think some of it is having four kids, some of it is being 40-something, and some of it is that so many of us are all in one house together. Life is definitely more adventurous the more people you have under one roof.

I feel as though the days just roll along, and if I’m not careful to count them I’m not sure where I’m at in the week, or month, or year.

I don't like to have a plan but it seems as though it’s essential to having a happy family.

Also, without a plan I’m prone to watching back to back episodes of Tiny House on HGTV.

So last weekend planned the heck out of our July 4th weekend. A cook out on Friday night started off with more excitement than I like when my parent’s dog picked up a bee in her mouth. Twenty minutes later Mom and Dad had to rush her to the vet to step the anaphylactic reaction she was having. All is well now, but I have to say watching their little dog suffer renewed my sympathy for people who have severe allergies.

Saturday we went kayaking with friends. This was a first for me because my kids knew more about what was going on than I did. I had to take directions from them, and I can tell you there were more than a few frustrated words exchanged.

I think that there were close to 100 of us at the put in (that’s kayak lingo for the place they dump you with you canoe or kayak or whatever vehicle you’re using), each wearing a red or blue PFD (that’s personal flotation device for you novices). The creek was pretty low so there was a lot of dragging going on. We weren’t given instructions on how to paddle. This may seem like an intuitive process but let me assure you, it’s not. Especially when there are two people paddling one kayak or canoe.

Let me just say the newbies were separated out quite quickly. We were the ones immediately stranded in the reeds or sitting on rocks trying to propel ourselves forward by rocking our bottoms back and forth. We were the ones yelling at, or being yelled at by, our paddling partner. At one point I looked over at an Indian couple, the husband at the front of the canoe, and noticed he is furiously directing her. My eyes met his wife’s and she raised her hands to say “I have no idea what he wants” and we both died laughing.

At that point I decided to give into the not knowing and just have fun.

Except when I didn’t know how to steer the canoe.

Anyway, in between dragging the canoe where we needed it and arguing with my children and husband, floating down the creek was so…relaxing.

The entire time we were out I was wonderstruck.



There’s just something about being out like that, even when you’re having to work hard, that is amazing. Being in nature reminds me that I am part of nature, part of creation, that I am just as alive as my surroundings.

It got me thinking about all the time we spend indoors anymore. I love the comfort of my home, I love electricity and running water, and I love my computer. None of that is a replacement for nature, though. None of that is as life giving as sitting in a patch of grass, putting your back against the trunk of tree that can see far more than you are able, or dipping your toes in free flowing water. 

For me, when I look at a painting or a sculpture, or any work of art, I can’t help but consider the creator. I think about what that person must be like, the thoughts or feelings they had when they made their work of art. I am the same way when I survey creation. I can’t help but think of my Maker when I gaze at his masterpiece, about why certain plants and animals are the way that they are. It doesn't take long for my thoughts to trickle to me and the fact that I am part of all of that and my soul sighs in relief.

Being in nature is so good for me, for us, on so many levels. There's a lot of research going on right now backing this up. There's a lot in the bible, too.

I'm guessing that I know, and you do, too, without needing research that being outside is good.

We were invited to a friend's house Sunday for a cookout and my boys played in a creek til they were too hungry not to. Monday we had my brother Erik and his housemates over. We rolled into this week with both of my parents having cataract surgery and kids working and going to Scout meetings and the pool and the park.

I've found myself looking at the calendar more than a handful of times to remind me what day it is.

How about you? Do you find your days slipping by quickly? How do you reconnect with who you are, and who made you?

 

Be brave, misfits, and don't forget to paddle.

Just keep paddling.