• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Ministry in Media
  • Ministry of Reconciliation
  • Ministry of Presence
  • Events
  Arthur Rouner Ministries

ARTHUR ROUNER MINISTRIES

Paddling Slow

9/11/2018

0 Comments

 
A friend who's feeling the effects of age as he enter his 70's, and has been warned by a heart attack, asked Molly and me to write something on aging.  Of course, there is so much to say.  You want to encourage your fellow oldsters.  You want to help them see the new ways they may need to operate, the new assumptions they need to make about this strange new stage in their living, the change and expectations they may make of themselves - particularly in physical ways.

For me, I am finding - after 45 years of leading Minnesota Boundary Water canoe trips - that the paddling alone on my summer Lake Ossipee in New Hampshire, and up my beloved Pine River, and back, has to now, at 89, be done in a slightly different way.

How differently?  Slower.  Just slower.  Take my time.  Pull hard when I can, but go for form, for a long sweep of the paddle, take rests when I get to 50 strokes, allow my breathing to come down to slow.  Maybe not go all the way each day.  Balance going to the bridge at Route 25 with a stopping-place, like what I call the "Beaver Pond."  Their old lodges are barely discernable there, and they themselves are up-stream, having abandoned the lower river because of the plethora of pontoon and other power boats who are finding the launch basin at Route 25 their best access to the lake.

Now, I watch for flowers along the river bank, particularly the stunning red cardinal flowers that are so dramatic on their simple stocks, if you chance to find them.  This is their season now, and I love discovering them, and watching for them, and treasuring the sight of them.

Early on in summer there are little white paper-like flowers in the tall grasses by the river mouth, and the purple lapin which are mixed in with them.  Bee bombs are there, too, in early summer.

Now, as September comes, I look for edelweiss, and asters, and of course, golden rod.  I love them all.

They make me slow a bit, in order to get a good look, and so is my journey more restful, more steady, more refreshing.

The slowing down applies to just plain walking, too, even around the house, and surely, out on our dirt road.

Of course, people are another reason for stopping to exchange a few words, whether on the river or the road.  It's on the river that I begin with a yodel toward a house or two on the river bank, or even at a passing kayak or power boat.  So, I accrue my "river rat" friends whom I cherish each in their own way.

Slowing down does make for more listening in such casual conversations.  Every word, I find, is worth it.  So often they curry care, and cheer.  All part of the disciplines of old age, and bodies that can't do any longer, all that they used to do.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Arthur A Rouner, Jr -
    Minister, Author, Leader of Forgiveness and Reconciliation Retreats, Minister of "Presence"

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

 All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. . ."
                                                                    2 Corinthians 5:18

Contact Us

>    Call the Faith Line for a daily message:  952-946-7987   <                                                                                    
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Ministry in Media
  • Ministry of Reconciliation
  • Ministry of Presence
  • Events