Sunday, February 18th, 2018
Silence is underrated. In the ever busy lives that we lead, where we wake up to alarms, start our days with our favorite spotify playlists, and drive to work or school with the radio playing, we tend to forget about the wholesomeness of silence. It's almost as if we're scared to leave ourselves alone with just our thoughts with nothing to keep our wandering minds distracted. Maybe we're afraid of what we'll find if we stop our little nothings and just listen. Just a thought.
It's not every day that is as perfect as today. It had a solid start with a good service at church, and an ending to put any average day to shame, what with the combined sophomore/junior party and then a get-together for Luke's birthday afterwards with the guys (we had a bunch of pizza, fun conversation (Complete with a total Bear Grylls burn. (For the record, he's the worst "survival guy show" out there. Just sayin'.)), and a showing of the movie RED (would highly recommend)). (Sorry guys, I go a little crazy with all the parentheticals sometimes.)
But the highlight of the day for me was going out on a little hike to Idler's Rest. There was only five of us, Charli and Mandy, Bobby and Daniel, and myself. Oh, and we brought Jex along too. As soon as we got there Jex bounded out of the car and jumped in the snow, and I followed suit. It was a mite cold laying there in the snow, so I stood up a couple seconds later. But in my heart I was still flat on my back in the snow. Ah, it's been too long! I need more snow in my life!
We started along following the trail, but promptly found ourselves off it. We didn't care and kept on going anyways; it was a relatively small area and the way it was set up it'd've been pretty difficult to get lost. You'd need some serious skills to pull that one off. All along the way Bobby and I would occasionally throw a few straggling snowballs at each other. There were also these cool little trees with snow all over their branches, and if you shake them all the snow falls off on the person behind you. This may have been done a few times by a handful of unnamed individuals... ahem.. anyways, but bime by we reached as far up the hill as we decided we should go, and so we went down the other side of it at a right angle.
Jex and I had many a fun romp, and we especially had a fun time going downhill because of all the speed you get and the fun leaps over branches and logs and... ah, everything. I miss the woods. I need more of it. I think we all do. But more on that later. Eventually we hit back on the trail again and carried along for another while, talking all the while of course. It was great. Daniel got several good pictures too, and then we came to the spot where the year before our two classes (at the time freshmen and sophomores) had posed for a huge group picture. Daniel insisted we all stand on this big fat log while he got a picture of us, and then he wanted us all to jump of and get a midair shot. Somehow I got mixed up on the signal of when to start, and I made as if to jump but then realized that I shouldn't jump. To try and stop myself from falling, I put my arms out to catch myself, but kind of ended up pushing on Bobby's and Charli's shoulders, and Bobby ended up accidentally doing the same thing to Mandy next to him when I suddenly started pulling on him, and... yeah, we all fell off the log. Whoops. But we clambered back up and got the picture, and it was all fine and well. Then Daniel swapped places with Charli and Mandy, and we did it again so he could be in it.
After that, we stood there. Snow began falling from the trees because the wind blew across the treetops, but then it became evident that it was actually indeed snowing for real. The flakes were beautiful. We all just kind of stood around and stared up into the sky, or off into the dark depths of the snow-covered forest, and sometimes our gaze would fall on the spot where the sunlight broke through the trees, casting a narrow strip of the woods into a bright golden smattering of pure ocular bliss. It was gorgeous. Beauty surrounded us on every side, and we couldn't drink it up fast enough. Several minutes went by in complete silence, each caught up in their own thoughts and ponderings. We were briefly interrupted by a passerby and his dogs, but we went right back to the pure silence the moment he was gone.
But it wasn't silence. The creek bubbled and trickled, laughing for the joy of it all; birds chirped gayly in the trees, hidden from sight almost as if they were too shy to show their faces but at the same time bursting with so much joy that they couldn't remain silent if they tried to. The wind blew off in the distance, swaying the treetops which every now and then sent down their blessings in the form of snow falling from their boughs. The trees themselves creaked with excitement, swaying along to the music of the woodland world. It's almost as if all nature is singing for joy at the beauty of it all, thankful to the core for existence, and ringing out in jubilation at the handiwork that God has wrought. It is marvelous. It is is amazing. It is truly glorious. And how can I stand before it all? What can I do? Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips! But not now, no, not forever; Christ has been crucified as our Passover Lamb, and I am now washed white as snow. Never forget, children of God, that this is true. Glory be! The five of us stood there basking in the pure praise of his awesome name, speechless at the beauty, marveling in His creation. It's a dance. It is song. It is joy.
This is what we're missing in our day-to-day lives. Consumed in entertaining ourselves to death, drunk on smartphones, high on the attention of others, bowing down to the idol of busyness and the myth of productivity we slowly drain ourselves day in and day out. We never stop going, we never stop listening. We're never sober enough from the entertainment to stop and think; for the worldly flesh inside of us is afraid of the light, and worries that if we pause for a minute we'll hear the music of the spheres and again return to the true God. Don't listen to the flesh; kill it. Every. Single. Day.
Now, I'm not saying that music is bad, or that we should drop all our responsibilities and become hermits out in the woods, far from it. But just don't let yourself fade away. It happens slow, but it happens nonetheless. Instead, take some time every now and then just to listen to what's going on around you. Keep in mind the bigger picture, don't forget your ultimate calling, and don't miss the forest for the trees. There's more to life than grades, assignments, and putting in the hours at work. Don't forget that.
But back to the forest. It had been several long minutes spent in silence, and it was time to go. But before I said anything, I wanted to see what time it was. I reached for my phone case to get my phone out and... crtsshh. The velcro keeping it shut came undone with a soft, small noise, which in the quiet sounded like a cannonball ripping through the starboard side of a five-masted frigate. Four pairs of eyes snapped at once and stared me straight in the face, staring straight to the depths of my soul. And I couldn't do it. All the joy from the beauty of the scene that was pent up inside of me could stand it no longer, it had to ring out, it had to sing: I burst into laughter, which rang through the trees and bounced off of branches. Soon others joined in and we all decided it was time to go back now. We headed back to the car, loaded up, and hit the road. We all had a great time, it was perfect. And Jex was happy too. And after that glorious time spent listening to the sounds of silence, to the sound of God's creation singing His praises, I'm rejuvenated. There's really nothing like a good communion with the saints on a Sunday morning followed by a good dose of His nature to recharge your drained and depleted battery. Give me a sword and a shovel because I'm ready. I'm ready to build, to fight; to live.
BRING IT ON!!
Monday, February 19, 2018
Friday, February 16, 2018
Reaching New Heights
Friday, February 16th, 2018
Have you ever tried to perform a simple task and just failed 100%? If you're anything like me, this is a common everyday experience. Whether it's simply opening the refrigerator or walking down to school while eating oatmeal out of a bowl, there's always a simple way to mess it up. Today though, I reached new heights previously thought unattainable.
It started off like any other disputatio. I plopped my bag down on the chair, and took out the black academic robe that you're required to wear at our end-of-the-week gathering. Rachel, Ben, and Mandy were in the row behind me, and as I put one arm through the freely flowing folds of the first sleeve, I began talking with them about something or other. As I continued to talk, I twisted the rest of the robe around my back and grabbed it as best I could with my other arm. (Remember, this whole time I'm trying to keep up a conversation.) But the sleeve for my left arm was nowhere to be found. Somehow it got lost in the twistyness of the robe. By and by though I found the hole and got my arm through it... but then Rachel laughed and I realized that something was wrong, both by her verbal cue and by the sudden realization that my robe was now thoroughly convorted in some convoluted labyrinth of a spider web that my arm was now trapped in. Something was basically wrong. I tried to extract my arm from this tricky trap, and after several seconds of flopping my arm around like a freshly caught salmon on the deck of a boat, I finally freed my arm from the bonds of confinement. Now it wasn't just Rachel laughing, but Ben and Mandy too. At times like these it's often best to just restart from scratch, so I cast off my chains and took another swing at it. This ended arguably worse than my first attempt, for I couldn't even get my first arm in. Thankfully Benjamin, who was standing to the right of me, had my six and prevented me from further consternation by holding my robe for me as I put it on. We all had a good laugh and at last I took to my seat, feeling only slightly conspicuous.
So there we have it. I don't know why it gave me so much trouble this week. Perhaps had I thought to untangle my robe after it'd been bounced about in my bag all day it'd've turned out all right. Or maybe it's the fact that I evidently can't multi-task very well. I'm still not quite sure. Either way, what's done is done and there's nothing left to do about it except look back and chuckle. Or laugh. That's how my Friday went, and boy I tell ya, life's never boring!
Have you ever tried to perform a simple task and just failed 100%? If you're anything like me, this is a common everyday experience. Whether it's simply opening the refrigerator or walking down to school while eating oatmeal out of a bowl, there's always a simple way to mess it up. Today though, I reached new heights previously thought unattainable.
It started off like any other disputatio. I plopped my bag down on the chair, and took out the black academic robe that you're required to wear at our end-of-the-week gathering. Rachel, Ben, and Mandy were in the row behind me, and as I put one arm through the freely flowing folds of the first sleeve, I began talking with them about something or other. As I continued to talk, I twisted the rest of the robe around my back and grabbed it as best I could with my other arm. (Remember, this whole time I'm trying to keep up a conversation.) But the sleeve for my left arm was nowhere to be found. Somehow it got lost in the twistyness of the robe. By and by though I found the hole and got my arm through it... but then Rachel laughed and I realized that something was wrong, both by her verbal cue and by the sudden realization that my robe was now thoroughly convorted in some convoluted labyrinth of a spider web that my arm was now trapped in. Something was basically wrong. I tried to extract my arm from this tricky trap, and after several seconds of flopping my arm around like a freshly caught salmon on the deck of a boat, I finally freed my arm from the bonds of confinement. Now it wasn't just Rachel laughing, but Ben and Mandy too. At times like these it's often best to just restart from scratch, so I cast off my chains and took another swing at it. This ended arguably worse than my first attempt, for I couldn't even get my first arm in. Thankfully Benjamin, who was standing to the right of me, had my six and prevented me from further consternation by holding my robe for me as I put it on. We all had a good laugh and at last I took to my seat, feeling only slightly conspicuous.
So there we have it. I don't know why it gave me so much trouble this week. Perhaps had I thought to untangle my robe after it'd been bounced about in my bag all day it'd've turned out all right. Or maybe it's the fact that I evidently can't multi-task very well. I'm still not quite sure. Either way, what's done is done and there's nothing left to do about it except look back and chuckle. Or laugh. That's how my Friday went, and boy I tell ya, life's never boring!
Monday, February 5, 2018
Lake Fun
Sunday, February 4th, 2018
Sometimes I make flash decisions. This was evidenced by the fact that the 2:20 clock in my truck stared me down as I drove north out of town. With Moscow in the rearview mirror, I headed off to Couer D'Alene to catch the last several hours of a weekend trip that several friends of mine were on; oh, and tonight was also a surprise party for Hannah and Rachel. Anyways, it was just me and the road all the way up, and it was actually kind of nice to get a solid chunk of time to myself for once. Good for the rumination as they say.
At any rate, I arrived just as they were considering launching the canoes and going out for some lake-fun. My advent only hastened the decision, and there was a flurry of scurrying as we all set about to prepare. I changed into a pair of swimming trunks I keep in my truck for just such occasions as these, and soon we were off. Brooke, Caleb, and Darcey took one canoe, Rachel, Hannah and I another, while Benjamin hopped on the little inflatable kayak. The rest of the peoples started walking along the shoreline, and we set off in our watercraft. It was quite the enjoyable ride; it's been a long time since I've been out on the water, and a long time since I've swum too! Heh heh, as soon as the idea of canoeing came up I knew I'd get a chance to swim some, so I's very excited for that. But the ice on the edge of the lake and scattered snow along the shoreline, along with the chilliness of the water, convinced me to wait at least until we were on the way back before I jumped in.
By and by we came to a quaint little island, and we all disembarked to poke around a bit. There was a nice little fire ring and cool rocks and stones, but most surprising of all was some droppings I found. It was either raccoon or rabbit, both equally shocking. Evidently there was an overly-zealous-swimming raccoon out there with a beef to prove and the muscle to back it up, or there was a miniscule population of bunnies inhabiting the island. I didn't know what to think and was somewhat dumbfounded. Anyways, Benjamin and Brooke started skipping rocks, Darcey found a cool spot on the other side of the island to sit and watch the water and horizon, and the others were poking around a big metal thingy that got washed up or something, not quite sure what it was. We all walked around and joked and laughed and explored, just generally having a good time. I floated between groups, now here, now there, just enjoying myself. I waited for the perfect time, which came pretty soon surprisingly enough, to disappear by myself and melt into the underbrush and trees unnoticed. It was perfect, nobody noticed. Then I snuck back to the canoes to work my mischief. Heh heh. I tied the short bowline of one canoe to one of the paddles, then hopped in the other one and held onto the one paddle with my leg whilst paddling with a different paddle. Thus I took both the canoes and left everybody marooned on the island, except I left behind the inflatable kayak just to be nice. (actually I left it behind in the hopes that they'd try to fit two people on it when they finally noticed, and hopefully flip over and fall into the water. That'd be fun. But I digress.)
The group of people on the mainland were scattered around inspecting all the cool things as I paddled up with the canoes, and then oh what mischievous cackling laughter was heard there! Charli thought it was a grand prank and would be hilarious, and so did all the others. After we'd had a good laugh and chuckle about it, I showed several people the 'thread the needle' game, where you grab two rocks, throw the first one up in a wide arch, known as the thread, and then with the second rock, the needle, you try to hit the first rock before it lands; thus, threading the needle. A few of us spent not a few minutes on the rocky shoreline trying to accomplish this feat. I think the only one to actually do it was Abigail, though several people came close.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Ruth and Heather getting into one canoe. It didn't look like they were planning on going anywhere, but were just wanting to sit down. They hadn't even looked around for paddles yet and had only just sat down by the time I got over there. A loud scream erupted from the two of them the moment I shoved them out into the water. Evidently neither was expecting it in the least, and there was quite the tumultuous uproar. Ruth then exclaimed, "All people with plant names are evil!" To which Heather just stared at her blankly... When they finally got fixed right and paddled back toward shore Ruth called out, "You better let us land, Leaf!" I waded out and pretended to push them out again, then returned to my spot on the shore, just as Kat and Emily walked up. Then all of a sudden Heather's feet touched ground and she was off like a rocket to get away from the water, for she had a great desire to be as far away from it as possible. In her haste to disembark (not sure if this was intentional or not, it really could go either way honestly), she got such a speed going that as she thundered by she knocked me back a couple feet and I knocked into Kat, who almost knocked into somebody else. Nobody was toppled, though there was some confusion as to why I was knocking into everybody; somehow they'd failed to notice Heather's blitz from the canoe. Still wondering how that's possible, but let's just roll with it.
After several more minutes, Hannah over on the island finally noticed what I'd done and called out in surprise. She was soon joined by Rachel, and together the two of them worked together and launched Rachel safely off in the kayak to come over to the mainland. As she made her way across, the rest of the islanders gathered and watched and tried to figure out what to do. By the time Rachel was three quarters of the way over, Benjamin had already tooken it upon himself to wade over and fetch one of the canoes himself. He was about a third of the way across when I decided to go out and meet him in the canoe, and I even took out the boots and towel and other dry commodities before going out, just in case Benjamin tried any shenanigans to get even. I hopped in and paddled off, meeting Ben in the center. The water was almost up to his neck now. I paddled up to him and we said a couple words, not much. It wasn't a very shocking conversation, more of like an everyday one if you get what I mean. He had a look of determination on his face though, and just kept plodding on to other shore. All at once, a shout and then a chant erupted from the crowd on the mainland, "Tip him! Tip him! Tip him!" They wanted to see me get my just deserts I guess! I laughed to myself. Benjamin paid no heed and just kept plodding on, and I turned around back to the island where three of them got on and made for the mainland, leaving me and Darcey still stuck on the island. Soon enough Benjamin came back with the other one and we were off.
Realizing now was my opportunity, I jumped in the water for a nice relaxing swim back to shore. The first little way I held onto the canoe and let them drag me, but I slowed them down too much so I just started swimming toward shore myself. The water was nice and cold, and I realized this fact more and more as I continued on. My feet felt like solid blocks of ice, both in terms of temperature and sensitivity: the only thing my nervous system told me about my foot region was that there was a slight sensation of cold, that's it. "Toes? Joints? What are those?" my nervous system asked. I carried on. My, what a wonderful day! The water was crisp and lively as it jogged up memories of times past spent swimming. Ah, what a glorious thing swimming is. Can we take just a moment to appreciate it? It's amazing, it really is. Gravity has less power, limbs move about with absolutely zero impact, and air-breathing land-dwellers seemingly defy natural law by living, even just for a moment, in the aquatic realm. Take joy in it. Don't take it for granted. Swimming is a wonderful thing; it's a good way to reflect upon the actual physical world, to observe how the world works real-time. If you don't swim, you sink. Heh, oddly enough that sounds just like how life works too. We often forget God's handiwork in all the awesome intricacies of this incredible world of ours, but swimming in a lake, or any body of water for that matter, never fails to re-instill in me the awesome wonder of this creation. Beautiful, isn't it?
Anyways, I swam toward the mainland, and took a quick drink along the way. Perfectly crisp, cool, and refreshing. Ohhh yeaah. Soon enough I made it, just in time to give the second canoe (with Charli, Emily, Kat, and Mandy in it if my memory serves me right) a good push to send them on their way with celerity. Then I clambered onto shore where Brooke and Caleb were still waiting for me, the others having already gone on. Now that I was back on land I realized I was indeed a little cold, and as I put my shirt on I started low-key laughing to myself. The reason was because my body was so cold I couldn't feel anything; I could see my arms and hands, but not feel, and, weirdest of all and the source of my laughter, I could see myself putting on the shirt but not feel it on my back. Like, not even a bit. IT WAS SO WEIRD. It felt like what I'd imagine a robot-man would feel if he tried to don a shirt on his cold steel-plated back; no feeling at all, just movement. Anyways, I laughed, put on my other shirt, and Brooke even gave me her jacket as well. That was nice of her, and I appreciated the warmth it gave me.
With that we trudged along the shoreline. Thankfully I was still cold enough I couldn't feel any pain from my knee (which still hasn't fully healed and has been giving me nothing but grief all this past week) since it was still too cold, but my feet could now feel the rocks at least that frequented the shoreline. Anyways, Caleb and I spotted a cool little trolley thing alongside one of the big three-story houses that brings people up and down the hill without requiring them to so much as lift a foot. That was a pretty fancy contraption, and he stopped to look at it a bit, but I kept on going, for I knew if I stopped my feet would groan when we started back again.
Later on, all now changed into dry, warm, and comfy clothes, we set to. Heather and others got dinner going while the most of us loafed about in the livingroom, and eventually somebody broke out the guitar and started singing. It was Kat, Charli, and Hannah. Their voices complemented each other's quite nicely, filling the room with a sweet, not-overpowering charm of a music that made one lose all sense of time and forget what you had been up to. But then, they started a song that I knew. I hopped over to where they were so I could read the lyrics and sing along. It was the 'radioactive' song. With as much well-intentioned and unskilled gusto as I could possibly muster, I broke out into song like a cannonball through a stained-glass window. Cries of dismay broke out from all quarters, "Aghh, make it stop! Arghh!!" Now I broke into laughter, but tried to continue on nonetheless. Finally I toned it down and just sang like a normal person, and it was somewhat tolerable.
Eventually we ate dinner, an awesome potato soup thingy with bread and chips on the side, and then all stood around the counter-top island or table and talked about various things. All at once, Ruth rushed into the kitchen with a loud cry and shout, getting everybody's attention, and exclaimed, "Alright guys, we've got an announcement to make. This just so happens to be a surprise party for Hannah and Rachel who both have birthdays really soon!" A chirpy, 'woop woop woop' issued forth from the crowd and we all cheered. Hannah was pleased, but there wasn't a Rachel in sight. Every breath bellowed out, "Rachel! Rachel!" along with other cries such as, "Adveni ad nos!" or, "O Rachel where art thou!?" Soon enough she came and together Hannah and Rachel each blew out the candles on their respective gallons of icecream, which we in short order devoured with many a fancy topping. As we were eating away, I noticed that Rachel, standing next to me, was standing with one leg kind of crooked up on the other, leaving most of her weight resting on the other leg. Christy was on the other side of Rachel, eating her icecream as well. I asked, "Rachel, have you ever gone up behind someone and gone like [hand motion] to their leg?" She half turned to me and replied, "Ha, actually I do that to people all the time." No sooner had the words left her mouth then Christy bopped behind her knee and got her good. Rachel managed to not fall over completely, but she done got got! It was perfect.
Later on somebody started playing a song on the speaker, and Brooke and I both thought it was 'Turn Down For What' at first, and we both prepared to launch into full-on dance-out mode. Sadly though it was a different song with a similar sounding beginning. Our crestfallen countenances were enough to make the dj switch to that song though, and then we were ready. I prepared to come in on the beat, and then... "Turn down for what! badeshh!!" We hit it on point. We continued to dance off to it, breaking out our most boppable moves and just owning it. Soon everybody was watching and laughing, and then that turned into an all-out dance party with almost everybody joining in. It was complete with jumping up and down, spinning around, arm motions, head bops, and so forth. Completely amazing.
All good things come to an end at some point, and around eight o'clock we all got our stuff together to go. Rachel and Mandy rode with me back to Moscow since the ride they'd caught on the way up had left the day before. Rachel promptly fell asleep in the back, and Mandy and I had a fun conversation about planes, people, and houses, and soon enough we were back in town. As far as I can remember, that's the best superbowl Sunday I've ever had. 10/10 would recommend.
Sometimes I make flash decisions. This was evidenced by the fact that the 2:20 clock in my truck stared me down as I drove north out of town. With Moscow in the rearview mirror, I headed off to Couer D'Alene to catch the last several hours of a weekend trip that several friends of mine were on; oh, and tonight was also a surprise party for Hannah and Rachel. Anyways, it was just me and the road all the way up, and it was actually kind of nice to get a solid chunk of time to myself for once. Good for the rumination as they say.
At any rate, I arrived just as they were considering launching the canoes and going out for some lake-fun. My advent only hastened the decision, and there was a flurry of scurrying as we all set about to prepare. I changed into a pair of swimming trunks I keep in my truck for just such occasions as these, and soon we were off. Brooke, Caleb, and Darcey took one canoe, Rachel, Hannah and I another, while Benjamin hopped on the little inflatable kayak. The rest of the peoples started walking along the shoreline, and we set off in our watercraft. It was quite the enjoyable ride; it's been a long time since I've been out on the water, and a long time since I've swum too! Heh heh, as soon as the idea of canoeing came up I knew I'd get a chance to swim some, so I's very excited for that. But the ice on the edge of the lake and scattered snow along the shoreline, along with the chilliness of the water, convinced me to wait at least until we were on the way back before I jumped in.
By and by we came to a quaint little island, and we all disembarked to poke around a bit. There was a nice little fire ring and cool rocks and stones, but most surprising of all was some droppings I found. It was either raccoon or rabbit, both equally shocking. Evidently there was an overly-zealous-swimming raccoon out there with a beef to prove and the muscle to back it up, or there was a miniscule population of bunnies inhabiting the island. I didn't know what to think and was somewhat dumbfounded. Anyways, Benjamin and Brooke started skipping rocks, Darcey found a cool spot on the other side of the island to sit and watch the water and horizon, and the others were poking around a big metal thingy that got washed up or something, not quite sure what it was. We all walked around and joked and laughed and explored, just generally having a good time. I floated between groups, now here, now there, just enjoying myself. I waited for the perfect time, which came pretty soon surprisingly enough, to disappear by myself and melt into the underbrush and trees unnoticed. It was perfect, nobody noticed. Then I snuck back to the canoes to work my mischief. Heh heh. I tied the short bowline of one canoe to one of the paddles, then hopped in the other one and held onto the one paddle with my leg whilst paddling with a different paddle. Thus I took both the canoes and left everybody marooned on the island, except I left behind the inflatable kayak just to be nice. (actually I left it behind in the hopes that they'd try to fit two people on it when they finally noticed, and hopefully flip over and fall into the water. That'd be fun. But I digress.)
The group of people on the mainland were scattered around inspecting all the cool things as I paddled up with the canoes, and then oh what mischievous cackling laughter was heard there! Charli thought it was a grand prank and would be hilarious, and so did all the others. After we'd had a good laugh and chuckle about it, I showed several people the 'thread the needle' game, where you grab two rocks, throw the first one up in a wide arch, known as the thread, and then with the second rock, the needle, you try to hit the first rock before it lands; thus, threading the needle. A few of us spent not a few minutes on the rocky shoreline trying to accomplish this feat. I think the only one to actually do it was Abigail, though several people came close.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Ruth and Heather getting into one canoe. It didn't look like they were planning on going anywhere, but were just wanting to sit down. They hadn't even looked around for paddles yet and had only just sat down by the time I got over there. A loud scream erupted from the two of them the moment I shoved them out into the water. Evidently neither was expecting it in the least, and there was quite the tumultuous uproar. Ruth then exclaimed, "All people with plant names are evil!" To which Heather just stared at her blankly... When they finally got fixed right and paddled back toward shore Ruth called out, "You better let us land, Leaf!" I waded out and pretended to push them out again, then returned to my spot on the shore, just as Kat and Emily walked up. Then all of a sudden Heather's feet touched ground and she was off like a rocket to get away from the water, for she had a great desire to be as far away from it as possible. In her haste to disembark (not sure if this was intentional or not, it really could go either way honestly), she got such a speed going that as she thundered by she knocked me back a couple feet and I knocked into Kat, who almost knocked into somebody else. Nobody was toppled, though there was some confusion as to why I was knocking into everybody; somehow they'd failed to notice Heather's blitz from the canoe. Still wondering how that's possible, but let's just roll with it.
After several more minutes, Hannah over on the island finally noticed what I'd done and called out in surprise. She was soon joined by Rachel, and together the two of them worked together and launched Rachel safely off in the kayak to come over to the mainland. As she made her way across, the rest of the islanders gathered and watched and tried to figure out what to do. By the time Rachel was three quarters of the way over, Benjamin had already tooken it upon himself to wade over and fetch one of the canoes himself. He was about a third of the way across when I decided to go out and meet him in the canoe, and I even took out the boots and towel and other dry commodities before going out, just in case Benjamin tried any shenanigans to get even. I hopped in and paddled off, meeting Ben in the center. The water was almost up to his neck now. I paddled up to him and we said a couple words, not much. It wasn't a very shocking conversation, more of like an everyday one if you get what I mean. He had a look of determination on his face though, and just kept plodding on to other shore. All at once, a shout and then a chant erupted from the crowd on the mainland, "Tip him! Tip him! Tip him!" They wanted to see me get my just deserts I guess! I laughed to myself. Benjamin paid no heed and just kept plodding on, and I turned around back to the island where three of them got on and made for the mainland, leaving me and Darcey still stuck on the island. Soon enough Benjamin came back with the other one and we were off.
Realizing now was my opportunity, I jumped in the water for a nice relaxing swim back to shore. The first little way I held onto the canoe and let them drag me, but I slowed them down too much so I just started swimming toward shore myself. The water was nice and cold, and I realized this fact more and more as I continued on. My feet felt like solid blocks of ice, both in terms of temperature and sensitivity: the only thing my nervous system told me about my foot region was that there was a slight sensation of cold, that's it. "Toes? Joints? What are those?" my nervous system asked. I carried on. My, what a wonderful day! The water was crisp and lively as it jogged up memories of times past spent swimming. Ah, what a glorious thing swimming is. Can we take just a moment to appreciate it? It's amazing, it really is. Gravity has less power, limbs move about with absolutely zero impact, and air-breathing land-dwellers seemingly defy natural law by living, even just for a moment, in the aquatic realm. Take joy in it. Don't take it for granted. Swimming is a wonderful thing; it's a good way to reflect upon the actual physical world, to observe how the world works real-time. If you don't swim, you sink. Heh, oddly enough that sounds just like how life works too. We often forget God's handiwork in all the awesome intricacies of this incredible world of ours, but swimming in a lake, or any body of water for that matter, never fails to re-instill in me the awesome wonder of this creation. Beautiful, isn't it?
Anyways, I swam toward the mainland, and took a quick drink along the way. Perfectly crisp, cool, and refreshing. Ohhh yeaah. Soon enough I made it, just in time to give the second canoe (with Charli, Emily, Kat, and Mandy in it if my memory serves me right) a good push to send them on their way with celerity. Then I clambered onto shore where Brooke and Caleb were still waiting for me, the others having already gone on. Now that I was back on land I realized I was indeed a little cold, and as I put my shirt on I started low-key laughing to myself. The reason was because my body was so cold I couldn't feel anything; I could see my arms and hands, but not feel, and, weirdest of all and the source of my laughter, I could see myself putting on the shirt but not feel it on my back. Like, not even a bit. IT WAS SO WEIRD. It felt like what I'd imagine a robot-man would feel if he tried to don a shirt on his cold steel-plated back; no feeling at all, just movement. Anyways, I laughed, put on my other shirt, and Brooke even gave me her jacket as well. That was nice of her, and I appreciated the warmth it gave me.
With that we trudged along the shoreline. Thankfully I was still cold enough I couldn't feel any pain from my knee (which still hasn't fully healed and has been giving me nothing but grief all this past week) since it was still too cold, but my feet could now feel the rocks at least that frequented the shoreline. Anyways, Caleb and I spotted a cool little trolley thing alongside one of the big three-story houses that brings people up and down the hill without requiring them to so much as lift a foot. That was a pretty fancy contraption, and he stopped to look at it a bit, but I kept on going, for I knew if I stopped my feet would groan when we started back again.
Later on, all now changed into dry, warm, and comfy clothes, we set to. Heather and others got dinner going while the most of us loafed about in the livingroom, and eventually somebody broke out the guitar and started singing. It was Kat, Charli, and Hannah. Their voices complemented each other's quite nicely, filling the room with a sweet, not-overpowering charm of a music that made one lose all sense of time and forget what you had been up to. But then, they started a song that I knew. I hopped over to where they were so I could read the lyrics and sing along. It was the 'radioactive' song. With as much well-intentioned and unskilled gusto as I could possibly muster, I broke out into song like a cannonball through a stained-glass window. Cries of dismay broke out from all quarters, "Aghh, make it stop! Arghh!!" Now I broke into laughter, but tried to continue on nonetheless. Finally I toned it down and just sang like a normal person, and it was somewhat tolerable.
Eventually we ate dinner, an awesome potato soup thingy with bread and chips on the side, and then all stood around the counter-top island or table and talked about various things. All at once, Ruth rushed into the kitchen with a loud cry and shout, getting everybody's attention, and exclaimed, "Alright guys, we've got an announcement to make. This just so happens to be a surprise party for Hannah and Rachel who both have birthdays really soon!" A chirpy, 'woop woop woop' issued forth from the crowd and we all cheered. Hannah was pleased, but there wasn't a Rachel in sight. Every breath bellowed out, "Rachel! Rachel!" along with other cries such as, "Adveni ad nos!" or, "O Rachel where art thou!?" Soon enough she came and together Hannah and Rachel each blew out the candles on their respective gallons of icecream, which we in short order devoured with many a fancy topping. As we were eating away, I noticed that Rachel, standing next to me, was standing with one leg kind of crooked up on the other, leaving most of her weight resting on the other leg. Christy was on the other side of Rachel, eating her icecream as well. I asked, "Rachel, have you ever gone up behind someone and gone like [hand motion] to their leg?" She half turned to me and replied, "Ha, actually I do that to people all the time." No sooner had the words left her mouth then Christy bopped behind her knee and got her good. Rachel managed to not fall over completely, but she done got got! It was perfect.
Later on somebody started playing a song on the speaker, and Brooke and I both thought it was 'Turn Down For What' at first, and we both prepared to launch into full-on dance-out mode. Sadly though it was a different song with a similar sounding beginning. Our crestfallen countenances were enough to make the dj switch to that song though, and then we were ready. I prepared to come in on the beat, and then... "Turn down for what! badeshh!!" We hit it on point. We continued to dance off to it, breaking out our most boppable moves and just owning it. Soon everybody was watching and laughing, and then that turned into an all-out dance party with almost everybody joining in. It was complete with jumping up and down, spinning around, arm motions, head bops, and so forth. Completely amazing.
All good things come to an end at some point, and around eight o'clock we all got our stuff together to go. Rachel and Mandy rode with me back to Moscow since the ride they'd caught on the way up had left the day before. Rachel promptly fell asleep in the back, and Mandy and I had a fun conversation about planes, people, and houses, and soon enough we were back in town. As far as I can remember, that's the best superbowl Sunday I've ever had. 10/10 would recommend.
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