On a Lighter Note

Today began with another beautiful sunrise through the port as I lifted my head.  How can you not appreciate something so magnificent welcoming you into each new day? After the bad news and bad mood of yesterday, I was determined that today would be a return to our thankful and appreciative lifestyle . . .

I had a lot to be excited about.  Any of you who know anything about me knows that I am an avid dragon boat paddler.  I joined Dragon Boat Charleston soon after my cancer diagnosis in 2006.  It has been a lifesaver in so many ways but, first and foremost, the camaraderie and support of each of the team and club members truly changed my life not to mention that the sport is a blast! 

So when I arrived in Marathon this past week and heard that there was a local dragon boat club that paddled every Sunday, I signed up immediately!  And today’s SUNDAY!  We got up and performed the usual routine getting to shore for my meeting with the carpool at 9am.  The drive with the other paddlers for the day took about half an hour and we arrived at a really neat little place on a canal off of Newfound Harbor around the area where Rob and I anchored on our journey from Key West that we thought was so great!

Now in Charleston we almost always have at least 12 people on the boat that holds 20 or we downsize to the smaller version, the Dragonfly.  With only six of us paddling, I was surprised that this hearty group didn’t even flinch but grabbed their gear and we headed out.  (I was thinking others would be joining us!  HA!)  Also in Charleston we begin our workout with a warmup of somewhere between 2 and 10 minutes depending on where we are in the training cycle.  OH, not in the KEYS!!!  This crazy group of nothing less than cheerful folks headed out for what ended up being an entire hour of paddling with only 6 on a 20 person boat!  The only break they took was after about ½ hour when a couples minutes of chit chat pursued before cranking it back up to full throttle.  You Go Team!!!

And another great moment in this adventure is logged.  I’m so thankful to my new paddling friends for allowing me to join in and I hope to not only paddle with them again before we journey on but that they will join us in Charleston – they certainly have earned there spot on any boat I’m on!