Really Living!

My youngest son (a fourteen-year-old almost man) and I just returned from our first summer adventure--our first-time ever kayaking.

Several months ago, I received an email offering a kayaking adventure on the Broad River for a really good price.  Plus it came with a T-shirt!   I had never been kayaking; I had tubed down the river in Helen, Georgia in water that could only be about twelve inches deep, but I had dreamed about whitewater rafting in my younger days.  I used to long for adventure, but somewhere along the way, I got too busy, too "grown-up", too OLD!  I missed that "me" and decided to do something about finding her again.  Feeling a bit plucky, I logged on to the website and purchased the certificate.

It has been tucked in my bookbag for the last two and a half months, waiting for me to find the courage to redeem it.  Friday, I remembered it and that it had an expiration date of May 31st.  It was use it or lose it.  I dug down deep inside the bag to find that single piece of paper that offered me adventure.  Holding it in my hand, I dug down deep inside of me to find the courage to actually go through with it.  I approached my son.  "Would you like to go kayaking with me this weekend?" I asked. 

He grinned his beautiful grin.  "Seriously?" he replied. 

"Seriously!"  I answered.

At 2:30 today, we put in at Broad River Outpost in Danielsville just off of Wildcat Bridge Road.  Some three hours later, we pulled our kayaks out of the water six and a half miles downstream just past the Highway 172 Bridge.  With arms as limp as wet noodles and sunburns across our noses, Sam and I grinned as we collapsed onto the seat of the bus that would take us back to the Outpost.  We had done it!  With Class II rapids, a five-foot waterfall that we could have avoided but chose not to, and a thousand boulders to snag our kayaks on (which we did), mama and son bonded on those six plus miles of the Broad River.  We talked, we laughed, we splashed, we capsized (or at least the son did) and we paddled.  It was hard.  It was tiring.  It was worth it all!  Today, we lived!