Patience

It's tough to be patient isn't it? This whole housebuilding thing hasn't helped with my patience. We're fortunate that we've only been delayed by about a week. I heard of some people's whose houses were supposed to be finished in July and still haven't had their basements dug due to all this wet weather we've been having here.

I believe the dictionary definition of patience equates it to long-suffering. Well - we may be a little stressed & frustrated by delays but we definitely have not been tortured. In fact - we have much to celebrate about. The great thing about a new yard is that there will be no grass to cut this year! Well - I guess there are two sides to that coin to but fortunately we are near the park.

I'm not sure how familiar people are with whitewater kayaking but I'll try a little illustration on for size. I love paddling whitewater and one of my favorite things is surfing a stationary wave. It is similar to surfing on an ocean wave - you need to cut back and forth - and it is all about balance and weight transfer.

Some waves are steep and need to be surfed hard & aggressive. Other waves are so stick you just have to turn your head to do a 360. The biggest challenge of waves usually is not the actual surf but actually getting on the wave to begin with. Many waves you can only hit going downstream, others have guardian waves which you have to paddle through like mad to actually get on to the sweet spot, and you guessed it - it is all about patience.

Once you are on the wave though - it is pure joy! I've sometimes paddled like a madman to get on a wave - gotten on it - and seconds later the wave spits me out because my bow dunked down or something silly. All that work & effort for a few seconds of pleasure.

I'll never forget the first time I got on the biggest wave of my life - it happens to be on the Winnipeg River at a place called Sturgeon Falls. The wave is ironically called Surfers - not maybe the most creative name but it is a monster wave that is probably one of the biggest safe waves to be on. Flat spinning by simply looking left or right! I got spit out once and missed my roll & ended up a 1/2 km down stream because of the massive wave train...

Anyways - yep you guessed it - back to packing & back to long-suffering...

Surfs up!

G