Friday Life's Personal Journal: Go Big or Go Home

I was going to post a somewhat sad personal journal entry today because the Fridays my kids leave for the weekend are extremely difficult and depressing for me.  But bag that because I happened on a YouTube video that brought back so many great memories and feelings that I had to share it. 

I used to guide rivers while in college during the summers in Moab, Utah and still love to keep watch on the water levels.  Every once in awhile, a snow year comes along in the Rockies and the stars align to dump a truly epic amount of water down the Colorado river and through Cataract Canyon.  It is not regulated by a dam so the level in this video is 90,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) or really big.  The normal peak is between 45-50,000 cfs so it's almost double.  This is a super short video and there is a swear word in the sound bite....although if I had hit the wave like that, I most likely would have said something similar.  The raft is a big 30 footer with a motor to judge the true power of the water.





I almost swam the Pacific to get to that water!!  What a rush!!  It's kind of a personal motto of mine to go big or go home and it has gotten me into more than a few adrenaline filled moments.  Those are some wild memories.  Some weren't so wild from those summers and it might be those that I treasure the most.

I remember one in particular that was on the Green River in Desolation Canyon, Utah.  We had set up camp, fed the passengers, and headed them in the direction of settling in for the night.  As was tradition for me, I went by the back of my boat in my swimsuit to bath and wash my hair.  I looked around and all was still.  The sun was setting high above the canyon walls and reflecting all colors of pink, purple, orange, red and yellow from the sky all the way down to the river which was glassy smooth.  All I could hear was the sound of the current, otherwise, silence.  I just sat there and soaked it in.  It was one of the most peaceful and serene moments I have had.  I can still feel it and will cherish it always.

It unfortunately didn't last for too long.  The next day I woke up, looked over, and saw a 4 inch green spider a foot away from my face that must have crawled over me in the night.  I got big air jumping off the boat tube screaming.  Then later in the week I jumped off a 60 foot high bridge girder into chocolate milk colored water on a dare, and pinned a raft to a canyon wall.  That also may have been the week that a black bear walked right over the top of one of my passengers while he was sleeping.  But, it was peaceful for a moment.

I hope all of us at some point can reflect on those events, wild or serene, that helped shape our lives. Memory lane can be a great place to visit.  And in the future make as many good, BIG ones as you can.  That's certainly what I plan to do depite living with challenging circumstances. Now if I can just remember where I put my cell phone.