Waiting game
April 14th
I could have made a phone call. I could have written an email. I could have checked their website. I could have used common sense — and assumed that if for years kayaking season on my local lake started in the middle of May, it will start the same time this year as well. But I refused to do all those easy and obvious things. Instead, today I went to my local lake to find out in person. The weather was gorgeous, so that was only an added bonus to making my way there.
The marina and boating equipment rental place and all the buildings there were closed. But after some walking and trying to open this or that door, I found a guy who told me — guess what? That’s right — that the kayaking season on the lake will start in the middle of May…. BUT — depending on the weather, it might start earlier, maybe even a week before mid-May. I already cannot wait!
In June last year, I started kayaking again after a thirty years break. I loved it as a kid and teenager, it was a staple of all the summer camps I went to. But then, as I got older, I was always too busy or too tired or too drunk or too lazy to keep at it. The moment I got in the kayak for the first time last year, after only a couple of seconds of gliding on the water, I knew what I was missing. The sheer pleasure of it and the fact that all the skills necessary for proper kayaking came back to me immediately (recalled almost as an instinct), gave an overwhelming happiness. So, every week I spend there 3 to 4 hours, kayaking on a rather small lake. I did some kayaking on other lakes in the area, but this one is the most convenient — I can get there from home in 25 minutes on my bike. My plan, for now, is to go back there in the first week of May and talk to the people working there then. Get the exact opening date and be the first one in line.
Again — I find that those small things, like waiting for the opening day of kayaking season, give me a lot of joy. The joy that is pure and child-like and unexpected, but so much needed, and welcomed in my life. I feel giddy already just thinking about it.
