Yesterday I donned my faithful red wellies and set off down our street, pulling my kayak along behind me on its wheeled dolly like some huge rubber duckie on a string. It’s a quarter mile or so to my put-in place. Neighbors have gotten used to seeing me parading up the road with my woven hat, boat, and wellies – and also the huge smile on my face that says I’m about to surrender to one of life’s sweetest pleasures.
But before that blissful moment arrives there is necessarily some awkwardness and even, on occasion, some mess.
First I must slide the boat down over the tar slip and nudge it through the rocks which stick up more or less depending on how much rain or sun we’ve had. Once the kayak is afloat I decide how much of myself I’m willing to soak. Most times I can stand with one foot in the water while swinging the other one into the boat, taking a breath and then sitting down carefully with only a little rocking and spillage; then I hold the wet foot out of the boat at a comic angle and shake it a few times to dry it off a little before folding it into place.
Other days when the water is too high or I lose my footing, I more or less fall into the boat and go out on the lake with wet knees and a soaked lap.
I don’t mind, of course.
The joy of exploring, of encountering the sunlight so directly, of paddling right into the wind and feeling the boat respond to every single thing – all of this is worth any little awkwardness in the transition from being an earth-creature to being a water-creature.
Knowing the pleasures ahead makes it easier to be brave. But what about those times when we don’t know if what lies ahead will be worth it? What about the many journeys into the unknown we all make in this life?
Well, at least it helps to know that the changes may be awkward. And it helps me to know that they’re also funny sometimes. And finally, it helps to remember that being stuck with your leg in the air and your lap full of water means that you are in it, as the Irish say: you exist, you are alive, you are a vital piece of energy struggling into a new form. Funny that is, yes – and noble, too.
And so worth it.
