Youth Fiction Author and Illustrator's Official Blog Page

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Moving ahead in life, I can, canoe?


My son Jarod went on a canoe trip recently with his classmates. It was the first time he had ever been in a canoe. He found out quickly how unstable they can be. As seen in the photo above, he's sopping wet. He rolled his canoe over in the lake trying to retrieve a ball from the water.

Life is like a canoe. It's a gentle balance with a confining, narrow width. The only way to keep it steady is to point straight ahead and keep moving. That is where stability in life emerges. You cannot roll over when you are moving onward.

Jarod's canoe of life before he came to Michigan, as a boy without a father, was at a standstill. He was looking out the sides of his canoe. Only a view where he was...going nowhere. He even told his mother, Kristen, before she and I were married recently, that he was "going nowhere." He wished he was dead and added, "I don't have a purpose in life."

Jarod may have rolled his canoe on his field trip in Muskegon Lake, but his canoe of life is straight forward and steady. It slices through everything and leaves a gentle wake behind. A wake of peace without despair. The ripples from this young man's canoe will give purpose to others in life, now.

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