THURSDAY THOUGHTS - River Trip

Guest blogger, Kathy Christensen sent in this post:

Back in June of 1996, I took my three sons on an eight day river trip through the Grand Canyon. It was a trip I had planned and saved for years to take. What an experience it was! We were in the hands of capable and well trained river guides and it was indeed the trip of a life time for us. On the first day they taught us what to do if we went overboard; how to breathe; how to use our feet to keep the boulders away; how to stay calm....you get the drift. Just after lunch we boarded the rafts to begin our progression through the rapid named "Hermit". They had just flooded the canyon and that stretch of water looked anything but inviting. My boys wanted to go first, so off we went (after the river guides had carefully scouted the water and how it was running) The rest of the group stayed back to photograph us as we went through. The waves were huge and to say the least, my heart was in my throat. I was in the back of the raft while my three sons were up front trying to keep the nose of the boat down as the river guide proceeded to move us through the rapids. Well, to make a long story short, the raft flipped and I kept moving forward, while my boys were picked up quickly. They had moved safely in to an eddy, and were put back in the raft. Then the river guide and my sons were off to get me. Of course I was panic stricken as I tried to decide when to breathe while those huge waves began smashing down on me. I honestly thought "This might be it....my life might end right here!" The river guides were true pros and they had us all back on the shore within 30 minutes, and no worse for the wear except my frazzled nerves. The guide told us that the river is very forgiving and the thing that kills people is panic and fear. If you relax and go with the flow, things usually work out. I have found that the same principle applies when dealing with Cancer. No good comes from unrest. Unrest, fear, panic, anger or sadness may motivate us, but our best effort emerges after these feelings have been replaced by peace. We will not accomplish our task and sooner or any better by performing it out of a sense of urgency, fear, panic or sadness. Let go of unrest. Let peace fill the void. We do not have to forget our God-given personal power (or our peace)to do the work we are called upon to do today. Let peace come first. Then proceed. The task will get done naturally and on time.

(some thoughts used from Melodie Beattie's book "The Language of Letting Go.")