The smooth swish of a paddle dipping into and stroking through water is a sound to soothe my soul.  Canoeing is an amazing way to relax and reconnect with the world.

In the time before him-and-I-together, my husband inherited a trashed canoe.  A friend of his found the canoe folded in half around a tree along a river.  Knowing my husband’s skills and salvaging tendencies, she thought he might be able to revive it.  Although at the time, my husband had a vague feeling of being a trash dump, in hindsight, him and I are most indebted to his friend’s inclination.  She was right, my husband couldn’t resist a project.  A lot of banging, a bit of bondo – ha, try a VAT of bondo! (between bondo and duct tape, nothing is unfixable) – and some help from a friend, and the canoe was back to being water-worthy.  It might look a bit rough, but, really, we’re now the proud owners of a metal Grumman canoe – when new these canoes can cost over a thousand dollars.  We’ll take it – happily.  It glides through the rivers, creeks, lakes with the best of them.  Each rhythmic paddle sweeping it along and I can feel my soul settling in deeper into its place in the world.  Movement meditation.