Whitewater Learning

I spent the entire week outside of Cleveland, TN on a Boy Scout Venture Crew summer camp. We spent Monday driving the 8 hours to our camp location with a stop at Wal-Mart to pick up our groceries. Grocery shopping with eight 16-18 year olds was a very interesting experience! Our first day we mountain biked 8 1/2 miles on an intermediate mountain bike trail and most of the boys crashed, with one boy crashing 6 times. This day we learned the importance of choosing a path and sticking to it, which we applied to life and enduring through trials. The second day we learned some map reading skills and got in our kayaks and split up into teams of two to see who could navigate the 9 points we were given and return. It was fun watching the boys learn from their mistakes and have fun out on the water. We learned the importance of having a plan and a road map in our life's journey and talk about how our spiritual map is the scriptures and we can check our spiritual compass through prayer to make sure we are on the right path. The third day was spent riding the Ocoee River in rafts with a guide. We had a lot of fun on the rapids and learned that sometimes life can be calm and at others it can be very rough, but sometimes the rough times in life can be fun. The fourth day we got a chance to become the guide on the river and practice some white water swimming, rescuing, flipping the rafts, and we all got multiple turns as guide on the river. We all eventually guided down a class 4 rapid successfully. This experience we related to how we first learn how to navigate our own lives and then we can help others navigate the waters of life. I got some good runs in during the quiet morning hours to stay on my training plan and we played a lot of volleyball, some ultimate frisbee, and there was a lot of swimming after the daily activities. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot, but the best part for me was watching the boys gain some confidence, overcome some of their fears and come together as a team. I saw some great examples of Hardy attitudes this week and it kept the reading I was doing in the forefront of my mind.

Adapting to the Situation

I spent the week of June 13 in Orlando at Disney world. I have a lot of activities planned this summer and had to make a peace offering to my wife and take the family on a trip. We went there with my family, my brother-in-law & his wife. We spent a day making the 10 hour drive and then 4 days in Orlando where we went to the 4 amusement parks & the 2 water parks and then we made the drive home. After this trip I came to the conclusion that Disney trips should be classified as an endurance sport after spending over 12 hours a day doing activities. I had a blast, but had to modify my training plan to fit the trip. There were no work out facilities at the condo and very little free time to fit in work outs, so I made sure and took my daughter on my shoulders everywhere we went and all throughout the parks. One day at the water park there were no lines at all, so I would ride a slide and then run the stairs up to the slide and ride again. I got a lot of weird looks from people as I rode water slides at a record setting pace. I also ran the lazy river; one of the lifeguards yelled to me that I wasn't being very lazy, which made me feel like I had really been accomplishing my goals.

Unconquerable Soul

I reviewed the poem Invictus for an assignment on my continuing quest to discover hardiness. I love this poem and analyzing through the lens of hardiness added even deeper insight. I realized that I need to embrace adversity and find meaning in all the trials I face. As I do this I take control of my outcome by choosing to embrace the good and the bad times. This also strengthens my commitment as I reinforce the meaning of my life, which a big part of that is to develop an unconquerable soul. I said in my discussion board posting I would feel like I was successful in life if my headstone read that I had an unconquerable soul and part of this is not just enduring adversity, but using all hardships to further strengthen my resolve. Acknowledging the power my attitude has and actively choosing to attack all challenges head on will help me to be high in challenge. All of these lessons helped me to take a big step on the road to Hardiness!

Postpartum

I recently took ORGL 550 & 551 and had an amazing experience. We bonded together as a class stronger than any other class I have been a part of. I invested myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually to this team more deeply than I ever had in the past. When the week was over, I was filled with a sense of emptiness as we all left in our different directions. I was filled with a plethora of emotions and attempted to provide a voice to them during my layover en route back home. I have just recently developed an appreciation for poetry and attempted to compose one of my own. I took a big risk exposing my emotional self to the team, but I received amazing rewards and my love for others has deepened. Here is my weak attempt at poetry: Walking in filled with apprehension Scanning the room, frozen by beauty Holding all expectations in suspension Reviewing discussions, realizing deeper reality Began by bringing whole and best self Feeling gravity's pull without a parachute Attempting to keep emotions hidden on the shelf Heart yelling, safe-rational thought became mute Abandoning the comfort, new possibilities emerged Sensing the depth of another's heart Bonds were solidified, paths converged Feeling new passion, wondering when did it start? Like a caterpillar in a cocoon, metamorphosis occurred Flood of thoughts cracked the anchor chain Left pondering how much had been observed The change of tides won't allow my previous state to remain

Selfishness

In my quest to gain a greater understanding of the principle Hardiness, I had to take some time to take a step back and do some self-analysis. As I read High Altitude Leadership, a quote lingered in my mind of "Selfishness kills people, profits, and possibilities. You already know this persistent danger that stalks organizations at every altitude. It doesn't take long to smell it coming" I started to think about a lot of emotions that I have been holding back lately. Part of me wanted to sound them out to those around me, but I held back. I went through an internal debate about if it were more positive to share them, or just to move on and shoulder the burden myself. Sharing those emotions would be selfish in so many ways. In most cases it is a wise practices to share emotions, but what I realized during this thought process was that my reasons for wanting to share them were completely selfish and that is not the type of person I want to be.

Seize the Moment

A small rural town about 20 minutes north of where I live was hit by a tornado and I went to help remove debris with the Boy Scouts and some fellow church members. As I was chainsawing away, I started to think about how at any given moment life can be drastically changed. The man in the top picture is 91 years old and he was hanging onto the toilet and his 7 year old grandson when the tornado hit. He moves slowly, but reacted quickly and saved his grandson's life. We never know how we are going to respond when adversity comes, but this quest for hardiness that I am learning about can help equip me with more tools to be better prepared mentally to handle any and all trials that are sent to refine me!