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“…the river bends.”
“If my ship sails from sight, it does not mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.” John Enoch Powell
Reflections from the Office of Mountain Whitewater
The summer is what I look forward to. Sun shinning, green grass growing, flowers blooming, and most of all the river flowing. This is my second year at Mountain Whitewater and I couldn’t imagine a better place to work. Working here last season opened my eyes to how truly beautiful the Cache la Poudre River is. My passion for the water has grown exponentially since rafting for my first time and learning to kayak. I can’t think of a more peaceful yet thrilling experience out there. The beauty of the canyon and the roar of the river combines for the ultimate adventure. Every day while I am in the office booking trips a little piece of me is jealous, but mostly I am excited to get to share this river with new friends.
-Anna Poindexter
Messing around
“There’s nothing… absolutely nothing… half so much worth doing as simply messing around in boats.”
-Kenneth Grahme, The Wind in the Willows
“All things merge into one… and a river runs through it”
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops-under rocks are the words and some of the words are theirs.”
-Norman Maclean (from a River Runs Through It)
Life is like a river
“Rivers are magnets for the imagination, for conscious pondering and subconscious dreams, thrills and fears. People stare into the moving water, captivated, as they are when gazing into fire. What is it that draws and holds us? The rivers’ reflections of our lives and experiences are endless. The water calls up our own ambitions of flowing with ease, of navigating the unknown. Streams represent constant rebirth. The waters flow in, forever new, yet forever the same; they complete a journey from beginning to end, and then they embark on the journey again.” – Time Palmer (from Lifelines)
Living on a raft…
It’s lovely to live on a raft and sometimes we’d have that whole river to ourselves for the longest time.” -Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain
Part of the Adventure is the uncertainty
“If you are starting out on an adventure and are already convinced that you will succeed, why even start?”
-Sir Edmund Hillary
Decisions…
“Make the best decision you can and never look back, knowing that at the time you made the decision it was the best possible way to go.” – Mike Sanchez
Journey Around the World
Excerpt from Taking the Old Highway By Brad Modesitt.
“This planet has- or rather had- a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”- Douglas Adams in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Lesson Learned: A two-foot drop is big enough.
The Mexican Fisherman
An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellow fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied “only a little while”. The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs. The American then asked, but what do you so with the rest of your time? The Mexican Fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full busy life, Senor.
The American scoffed, “I have Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City where you will run your expanding enterprise.
The Mexican Fisherman asked “But Senor, how long will this all take?’ To which the American replied, “15-20 years.” “But then what senor?” The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.” “Millions Senor,then what?” The American said, “Then you could retire, move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your children, take siestas with your wife, stroll into the village each evening sipping wine and playing guitars with our amigos.