I gasped for breath as the cold water hit me, looking up at the droplets shimmering brightly in the summer sun. the tumbling falls thumped a bass drumbeat on my neoprene skirt. I could just hear my father, in his kayak a few feet behind me, over the water’s roar: “you’ll draw upon this memory soon enough.”
He was right. twenty days later I was in Panjwai, one of the deadliest districts in afghanistan’s Kandahar province, commanding a leopard tank. Many times over the next eight months, I would find peace and strength in that vivid memory.
Returning home, the memory lingered. My father’s observation, paddling beneath the falling water, surviving another tour of duty—together they reminded me of the true essence of life. I sold my house in the city, moved my family east— way east, to Newfoundland—and bought a depreciated, 70-year-old saltbox by the sea, complete with weeds and small conifers sprouting inside. six months of renovations later, we moved in.
KAYAKING AS SUSTENANCE
This new existence makes time for paddling whenever the weather permits. Now, I kayak to sustain myself: easing into the meditative bliss of gliding across calm water, gathering wild edibles for supper.
Shouldering my kayak after one such outing in House Cove, I spotted a skull and scattered vertebrae in the sand.
to be honest, I thought the worst. Instead, I had stumbled upon the remains of a minke whale and a harp seal resting in a field of strand wheat, lungwort and beach pea. Pink and blue lungwort flowers and white pea blooms flourished among the bleached bones. a perfect contrast of life and death right before my eyes. seeking to capture one side of this precarious balance, I composed the picture in black and white.
A simple filter can change a photo’s subject, much as a single decision can transform a life.
This article first appeared in the Early Summer 2014 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine and get 25 years of digital magazine archives including our legacy titles: Rapid, Adventure Kayak and Canoeroots.
