Rapids of Life

I’ve written about my belief that being on (or in) the water is therapy for me, and I think for many, many others.  People of way more noteworthiness than myself claim there is a scientific explanation for this.  Something to do, literally, with negative ions.  Regardless of the reason, it’s a thing for me.  I’m also fortunate enough to have worked with, at this point in my life, thousands of people in and on water.  Currently I’ve begun working with a fascinating human that I’m hugely impressed with, for all he is…and isn’t… and his tenacity to meet his own life challenges.  Feels a little too personal to write about him, but it does bring up a bigger point for me, and waterways as a metaphor for life.

Life is an ebb and flow.  Life is sometimes serene.  Beautiful.  Calm.  Other times it’s splash and giggle fun…adventurous, challenging but grand.  Other times you’re getting your ass kicked on tumultuous rapids.  And sometimes you’re falling off of your board or out of your boat swimming through the worst of the abyss, hitting rocks along the way.  Bumped and bruised–perhaps breaks, dislocations or worse.   I’m not trying to be dramatic or heroic.  It just IS.  Some of us deal with the hardships better than others.  Sometimes we handle our “swims” with stoicism and grace.  Other times we flail and kick, potentially screwing things up something fierce.

Like many of my posts I don’t have answers.  I don’t pretend I have the answers.  All I can hope is that in these times when you see another person getting crushed by the intensity of the waves, maybe toss them the throw rope.  Or if it warrants, the live bait rescue…ha!  Because sometimes we have to make ourselves vulnerable to help a fellow human.  I’ve found empathy in unexpected places lately. Admittedly, my challenges are pretty “first world”.  However I’m hugely grateful for the support, wherever I find it and we are, as a very wise person recently told me, paddling this canoe together.

Thanks for listening….