Advice for Life on the River

Proverbs 22:6:
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

My thoughts, midflip? Clear as a bell:
Don't drop the paddle.
After all those years of safety talks, you could say I have been thoroughly trained!
My dad would be so proud.

Pictures courtesy of Mark Hoza and Brother Durd.
Panther Creek Rapid, Salmon River, Idaho

Unexpected

Today was the last day of school. When the bell rang to dismiss for summer, I was fully anticipating the usual war whoops and shrieks of delight. Instead, much to my surprise, half the class BURST INTO TEARS! No kidding! I just stood there, totally aghast, as my sixth graders had an all out bawl fest. The girls desperately hugging each other, as stripes of mascara dripped to their chins. The boys, red-faced, knuckling their eyes (one boy out and out sobbing), slapping each other on the shoulder and back.

I was totally beside myself.

The problem, I do realize, is that a chunk of the class will not be returning to NSA for middle school. But that happens every year.

Crying about summer vacation?

That's got to be a first.

Borrowed from a friend

I want movement and not a calm course of existence. I want excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I feel in myself a superabundance of energy which finds no outlet in a quiet life. Leo Tolstoy