Tom and I took a canoeing trip down in Arkansas about 22 years ago. We laughed about it later, but we had a hard time on that trip. We had never canoed together before and our marriage barely made it!
Tom thought it was going to be a relaxing floating trip. I had gone conoeing before and knew that it could get a little rough. I had only gone in wide, shallow rivers though. This was much bigger and very deep in places. It was a beautiful river with crispy clear water and gorgeous forests on each side.
He’s not here to defend himself, so without going into details, let me just tell you that we argued a lot that day and I was right every time 😉. It was a LONG day. We hit a lot of rough patches. There were downed trees in our path that we had to maneuver carefully around. I think it was an eight hour trip, but it seemed to last twice as long.
We made it, though. We grilled rainbow trout on the motel grill that night. We laughed about how bad we were at communicating in the canoe and the amount of unexpected stress there was. We couldn’t wait to rest our aching arms that night and we fell into a deep, carefree sleep.
So now, I’m learning to paddle the canoe by myself. It’s hard enough with two people trying to navigate the rough patches of life. It is very hard to do it alone. Especially, with the two passengers we picked up along the way.
I’m learning. I’m figuring it out and the passengers help when they can. We’re doing it. We’re making it down the river. There is sure to be more rough patches, but we’ll make it through.
P.S. That is the one and only canoe trip we ever took! 😂
