Nautical Discovery

"Taking action is being alive."
-Don Ruiz in The Four Agreements

How often do people say they want to do something and then never do it? I'm not sure I ever want to discover the repercussions of living in a world where everyone always did what they said they wanted to do (yikes!), but a little more follow-through of desirable activity could be supremely uplifting.

Yesterday, my friends and I did something we've been saying we've wanted to do for quite some time. On our bike path, there is a wide-ish river that extends pretty far into a nearby county, and every time we bike past it we say we should tube down it one day.

Oh, did we tube down it one day.

After I had nearly wiped out all of Walmart's tubing supplies, (you can find tubes there for $2!), we were river-bound. We parked our car along the river and eased into the water one-by-one, feeling very much like characters from a Mark Twain novel.

Our first ride down the river was brief but eventful. During this early excursion I discovered that it is possible to do a summersault in very shallow water without getting concussed (do not try this at home), and that rivers tend to steal people's sunglasses. We floated for a small distance past a "no trespassing" sign until we saw two very sour-looking fishermen who appeared to be trying to eject us from the water with their withering stares.

The real adventure ensued after we decided to march as far up the river as possible to see where it would end. We never reached the end. Fatigue and filth had consumed us; wearing a white bathing suit was a terrible idea. Trudging up the river, however, we became Tom Sawyers on a brave expedition. We overturned rocks to find critters, we took a break to skip rocks (I maxed out at two skips - so depressing), we practiced agility (rocks hurt), and we found a dirty wooden plank. While none of these events seem overly interesting, it was a wildly entertaining escapade that involved a lot of falling and treacherous navigating. Once our butts hit the tubes after battling upriver like a fierce school of salmon, we marinated in the sunlight and laughed the whole way back.

Humans are curious creatures. If we do not feed our curiosity periodically, our minds become stale. This is why adventures are therapeutic. Every so often, turn yourself into an explorer. It is not necessary to travel far in order to discover. You can discover so much in your immediate surroundings. You can investigate the details in something you've never analyzed before. Whatever you may choose to explore, you will inevitably find something new. How refreshing. Our minds and our bodies need to be woken up sometimes. Routines are fantastic, and there is plenty of beauty in tradition. But life is too short to let the brain go stale. Life is too short to say you can’t wait to do something and then never do it.

Take action to feel alive.

Investigate, Explore, and Discover.