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.](https://ryanjordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/were-all-between-swims-11.jpg)
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.](https://ryanjordan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/were-all-between-swims-51.jpg)
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.