Read Part One of my story HERE.
Rafting down the Arkansas River in Colorado, you are surrounded by some of the world’s most beautiful scenery. There are cliffs of red with majestic mountains. The trees are all different hues of green with beautiful wildflowers scattered within them. The river rocks are all different colors and the water glimmers as it slides over them. It looks like an ever-changing mosaic.
Our counselor/guide had us be the lead raft. She got us placed in the boat and gave us our instructions. She knew the history of the area and as we floated down the river shared it with us. We had to paddle every once in a while, but it was an effortless trip. It was my husband’s first time on a raft, and he admitted to me when we stopped for lunch that he was a little disappointed because it was SO easy. He wanted some excitement! Our guide assured us there were more rapids ahead of us.
We got back on the river, and it started nicely. We did get a little more excitement with some rapids that dumped some water in the boat and got our hearts pounding. We had to work at it and row harder and listen to directions. We had to work together to get the raft safely where we needed it to go. But we did it. And it was so much fun!
I loved to see how our guide was shared her genius with us! She has been all over the world rafting and was so talented. I got a glimpse of how she could read the river and make changes to our direction to navigate through tricky spots safely. She was quick to praise us for doing a good job while also giving us clear instructions when we weren’t. She took action when she needed to. She would be in the middle of telling us about a landmark and stop to give us a command to paddle, and then she would generously share more of her knowledge.
Our guide told us that the biggest rapid was coming up, and there was a professional photographer that took pictures of everyone going past. I was determined to do my best while we were going down that rapid. I wanted to get some good pictures of us having fun and doing things out of our comfort zone.
I also wanted to prove that all that negativity buried in that box in the deepest part of my thoughts were all lies.
Well… that wasn’t exactly what I got.
I fell out halfway down.
2 thoughts on “Doing Hard Things – Part 2”
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