It was probably the last gorgeous day of summer!
I’m going canoeing, I said to myself. I’ve only dipped my canoe into the water once this summer, and this is likely my last chance. Spur of the moment, I called a friend, “Are you doing anything this afternoon? Would you like to go canoeing?”
“I haven’t canoed since I was about eighteen,” she said, “but, sure, I’m not doing anything. I’ll go canoeing.” (I knew she was an avid kayaker, though.)
With limited time, we headed off to the nearest little lake. I knew it would be low water in mid-September, especially this year.
We launched off the muddy shore and headed down the channel towards the main body of water. It was shallow. Very shallow. We glided along, barely staying afloat.
But it was interesting to watch the activity and the evidence of activity. Grebes and mud hens busied themselves around us. Herons stood like sentries guarding the scene around them. We noticed lines randomly configured in the muddy bottom six inches (15 cm) below us and wondered how they were formed and why they went in such hap-hazard directions. We saw bubbles emerging from holes in that muddy bottom, and speculated what might be producing them. And we saw the mud, the flotsam, and the reeds along the edges.
“That’s why I like being on the water,” said my friend. “You see so many things from the water that you never notice otherwise.”
Isn’t that true of all of life? When you get right into something, you see so many things that you’ll never notice from the edge. Some pleasant, some curious, some maybe not even so pleasant. But you have to be there to get those experiences that add variety, excitement, perhaps mystery, to life.
Suddenly, a massive splash and surge of water scared the bejeebers out of us. A cousin of the Ogopogo had suddenly burst into motion a metre or two off the bow, perhaps disturbed by the touch of the paddle!
Another reflection of life!
We can sit on the shore, and miss a lot of life. Or we can jump in, embrace whatever comes our way, and deal with it. We can be the spectator, or we can be the participant.
I’d felt a little guilty about leaving my work behind on this Friday afternoon and going canoeing instead. But I’d weighed that against the (evidently sound) advice I’d been reading about: “The only thing in life you can never get back, is time.”
Work can wait, I thought. I’ll never get this day again (this year). Why forfeit this opportunity?
Now, I don’t advocate being irresponsible. And I am fortunate to have some flexibility of time that not everyone has. I did make up some of that work on Saturday.
What experiences I would have missed had I not decided to embrace this day for the opportunity it afforded me.
When I look back at my life one day, will I be happier to recognize myself as a participant or a spectator? To have embraced opportunity, or let it pass? I know the answer.
Rent 2 Own Tip
A rent 2 own program is designed to ensure that you have all issues preventing you from a mortgage repaired by the end of the term. All the repairs take time. So, when considering rent 2 own, you need to be ready to “hit the ground, running” from the very beginning of the term, or even get a head start during the negotiation process.
Quote of the Week:
The formula for failure is to show up thinking you know everything and hoping you get something. – Suzanne Evans
