Let me just note that me and water don't go well with each other. I used to love swimming and everything water related but after a bad swimming mishap where the instructor wasn't looking and I was doing the stroke wrong and went under and didn't come back up and they did CPR on me...well let's just say I never go in unless I can for sure touch the bottom of the water (which in this case would mean a nice child's pool). So being in a flimsy little kayak with just me and myself and surrounded by a lot of water? Well...yes, I was a little nervous. Not to mention just last night when my parents were discussing if my little sister would be riding her own kayak alone (her first time too)...one of my parents pointed out that when the kayak tips over, it takes you the whole way and you are stuck in the kayak to begin with and then you're head-down in the water and stuck in the kayak...well...you get the picture. SO...last night I did have a lot of the same nightmare playing in my head of me being tipped over in the kayak and then you would never get to read another blog post of mine ever again! Lol, yes, I did literally dream that last night over and over.
But we made it...our driver said that it usually takes people about 3.5 hours to kayak the whole thing but my dad and I made it in just under 2.5. Near the end we just stopped paddling and just enjoyed everything..the beautiful day, the lovely breeze, the kids playing in the shallows as we passed, the dragonflies, the fish, the turtles, the flowers...just everything was gorgeous. I definitely got my Vitamin D in today! Afterwards they all went to a brewery while Aimee, Becca and I headed back to Nashville and stopped in at this lovely little restaurant where we got some really good food. The menu there is a really good one...filled with a lot of options for such a small place, but still with variety. You could find really common restaurant foods while others you really couldn't find many other places. And our waiter! Ah! I have not had such great service in a long *long* time. He really mixed humor and service together...he was very funny and cheerful and thoughtful of the customers while still holding it within reason...you know how some people are like that but they go all out and just try too hard? No, he was really great. Made me smile since I haven't seen many people like that recently.
So now for the optimism...I kind of thought of this part up on the way home...random and not very connected or grounded as far as thoughts are concerned. But I was listening to the radio with the girls and the song "Give Your Heart A Break" by Demi Lovato came on...and it just got me to thinking. Let me just say that when it comes to people I rarely give up on them. I love to find the "needy" ones and just find some way to be there for them and help them out of whatever they've gotten. I started years ago subconsciously and I guess it just became habit. I remember one of my first "cases" was way back when I was probably 10 or 11...and she was one of the loneliest people I've ever met...but we became fast friends and best friends for a few years before we fell apart...not like a sudden thing...but gradually, you know how people just fade away? That was my first case and I've been subconsciously doing it ever since till this song came on today and it just got me thinking how I do that and how others do it too. My best friends that I have today...the friends who I know won't leave me...the friends who have been there through everything...those are the ones I've come to realize who picked me up in dark moments of my life. I owe them so much.
But this requires a lot of optimism and hope if you think about it. I've had to work on a lot of people before and most of them haven't ever realized it or noticed at all...this is kind of a thankless job...no one gives you much thought or mind. Sometimes when these people are your very best friends you take them for granted..I know I do. These are the people I feel least guilty saying "No, I can't hang out just cuz I don't feel like being with people right now" to...these people have done everything for me and been there every time I need strength and that's what I give them? But somehow I don't mind when my little "cases" do that to me. I hate calling them cases...because they're not. They're just people I want to help. I look at a lot of them today and I see how far they've gone and who they've become and a lot of them are really great people. It makes it so worth it to know that maybe you were a part of that.
Every year near Christmas time we always watch the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" and when I was younger I found myself fascinated by how much impact one single person had on so many peoples' lives. I never would have thought that anyone could influence like that...but I always just attributed it to him. I never thought about myself like that. But it is me...and it's you...and it's everyone you know or have come in contact with. Everyone influences everyone in some small way. You never know when you could actually be *saving* someone's life just by being with them. Like our server today...I don't think he could ever imagine just how impressed and impacted I was by his really great service! Now, that didn't save my life...but to someone who just needs a little ray of sunshine in their life..well..you just never know.
What I guess I'm driving at now is this...just don't take advantage of yourself. Don't underestimate yourself. You are much greater then you think and you have much more impact then you could ever imagine. One word could build someone up or tear them apart. One thing you say could make someone's whole day or ruin someone's whole day. So choose how you do what you do and what you say very carefully. Aimee and I were talking on the way home, because she was driving our van and we told her you could adjust the volume without taking your hands off the steering wheel, there was a control button on the steering wheel itself. She remarked how lazy that is...I mean, how much effort does it take to lift your hand off the steering wheel about 2-3 inches and adjust the volume?
Which got us talking about how lazy and dumbed down our culture and generation has become. I mean, we have become so incredibly lazy! We are being held back from our true potential! We can function so much better if we were only pushed to our limits. Humans are not stupid, we were created very carefully and by the best of Creators possible...we have such great possibilities and potential, if only we would use it! But instead...instead we get machines and shortcuts to make our lives so much "easier" and that holds us down, ties us up, and puts us in box...a forever stupid box which limits our abilities. Maybe it is a little exaggerated from just that one little button on the steering wheel that controls the volume...but even that tiny thing...it doesn't require hardly any effort to just reach for the real volume button...but we have just increasingly become little robots who want the easy way out. How sad that we can't use our full ability and potential that God has mercifully blessed us with.
May you all have a beautiful day filled with His blessings!
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