A morning off...I'm okay with it, I guess.

I am off on Tuesdays, and look forward to getting out there in the early morning quiet. I can get a lot of thinking done, organize my day, and I feel like I'm starting the day off in a healthy direction. It's raining here on Lanier, but it's hard to complain because we so need the rain. It seems that every time we get a downpour, the Army Corps of Engineers is there to suck it right back out and send it downstream. These less violent rains are the only way that we get to keep to water and bring the level back up.

My new Adult Learn to Kayak class started last night. Only two students this time, a couple of girls who were referred by the group who took the last session. As I looked at the weather radar, I actually thought about canceling last night. I didn't, and I was glad.

There was so much activity over there last night!! Athletes were cleaning and wrapping up their boats to load them on the trailer for the long drive to Seattle for nationals, and at the other end, there was a meeting upstairs for the BBI program. The BBI program is the name of our middle school kayaking program, and besides being a really great sport to get your kids involved in, it's the feeder program for our sprint team.  My girls and I picked out way through all of the activity and eventually were able to find them a couple of paddles, some life jackets, and recreational kayaks.

There was an eery sort of calmness on the water last evening. I could see weather heading in our direction from the west. But, after some initial training on how to hold the paddle and how the "twist" works, we set off. My intention that first class is always to get them to paddle all the way down to the docks on the other end, which is a distance of about one kilometer. Didn't really happen last night, because the rain started and didn't show any signs of going away. All of the outdoor activity with the older kids had long since gone away, so we put up the equipment, closed up the boathouse, and rescheduled class for another day next week.

As I walked out to my car, I saw all of the very young kids streaming into the boathouse. I thought about the first time Steven and I walked into that meeting. It seems like a million years have gone by. And I felt my heart warm as I experienced one of those random moments of gratitude.

I am a lucky girl.

TKM