salt the planet

Daniel and I remained in Vancouver for one more day of excitement. First, we went to the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. As we walked through the collections of mostly First Nations artifacts, my studies from college continued to wash over me. It was thrilling to experience the totems, masks, tools, and stories of the First Nations of western Canada. We were also able to see an interesting collection of handmade artifacts from prisoners of the First World War who were kept on the island of Cyprus. These items were sold to finance the opposition and were essentially a form of slave labor. A sign at the display challenged us to contemplate how these items would be categorized in a modern museum, for they seemed to have little in common with one another (sarcophagus statuettes, reptiles made of beads, decorative guns carved of soapstone) and obviously did not fit any traditional museum category. After the museum, we drove northeast across town to a place called Deep Cove where we rented kayaks and paddled around the Indian Arm Fjord for almost 6 hours.

We stopped at Raccoon Island in the fjord for awhile to walk around and explore. As we were trying to find a way down to the kayaks (the sides of the island were steep) we found a tree with a branch that we thought we could use to gently lower us to the shore. Daniel went first and, after getting about 2/3 of the way out onto the branch and about 10 feet off the rocky shore, the tree limb snapped at the base and Daniel went plummeting onto the shore. I called to him to make sure he was alright and after what seemed like 2 minutes (it was really only about 5 seconds) Daniel emerged out from under the downed branch, walking and holding the back of his head. I made sure he was feeling alright before scaling down another part of the side to make my way to him. Upon seeing him, he had several scratches along his left shoulder and arm along with a small cut on the back of his head near the occipital lobe. We made sure that he was feeling alright and, after returning to the kayaks for a brief rest and a banana, pushed off into the water again. We were absolutely exhausted, physically and mentally, by the time we returned (13 miles of kayaking in 6 hours) and we were thankful that we had some of our lunch leftover and didn't need to cook. Click here for an interactive map to see where we paddled. Once you get to the site, click on Power Stations in the interactive map image on the left to see how far we went.

I learned much about perseverance, pain, fortitude, adversity, and continuing on toward a goal with the monotony of what it sometimes takes to get there. I also learned about forward thinking and mentally preparing for whatever may come by running scenarios in my brain. Daniel and I had several conversations after his tumble to discuss what we would have done if something worse had happened. It helped me to at least be more prepared mentally when something like that happens. Though I have experienced it in other ways, especially through training (Lifeguard, CPR, AED, etc.) this was the first time a scenario like this has happened when I was able to talk through it with someone after the fact. It helps to reflect and think about what would happen in situations like this in the future. I hope this is something I will continue doing, not simply to rehearse nightmare situations or increase anxiety over what may happen, but to prayerfully think forward in preparing for what may come in any situation.