Sam Fulbright of PCM wrote a wonderful post over at WW Dreams that he might have thought was about paddling, but was really about life.

Life’s trials are like a paddler’s swims.

Other times, you try to roll, and can’t. You try again, and can’t. You’re head hits a rock here, a rock there. Maybe you cut a gash on limestone above your brow, or break your nose or mandible. Maybe (gasp!) you have to pull the ripcord and take a big swim, and, as Sam wrote, enjoy the grit of that humiliating beverage drank from your rank old bootie.

Enjoying my time between swims, tenkara fishing for wild rainbow on the Bitterroot River in March, 2013.

I have to laugh a little whenever I hear a young person think that life is like a box of chocolates. Sure, you never know what you’re going to get, but it’s still chocolate, they say.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not how life has been for me. Sometimes, the chocolate just ain’t chocolate, man.

I think we’re all between swims.

And the swims – that’s what’s makes us, you know?

Ice climbing at Hyalite, February 2013. Ice climbing is a wonderful activity to partake in when you’re in the midst of a big swim. Bleeding, bruising, freezing, bashing, and a general sense of discomfort and sensory awareness keeps you feeling … alive. And keeps your perspective clear so you can navigate the swim.