Not school at all

This week, my family has been having a long email discussion on crew and rowing. On of my nieces is starting to row in college and she innocently asked for family info on who had rowed. Although there are those in my family who have rowed all through college and masters, my rowing experience was limited to fall and winter of my freshman year in college.
There is a sleekness in the design of the crew shell that is sexy. The camaraderie of the boat as you tie in and count down your seat. The leap of excitement at the start and the pull through the middle of the race in the power strokes. And then crossing the finish line into a glide.
One of my favorite memories in a freshman four with cox was finishing a glide at the north end of Lake Samish in a early autumn morning. The mist on the lake and steam from sweating bodies rising, the perfect stillness broken only by the ripples of the shell and the drip from the oars, and watching a bald eagle dive for a lake trout and take to flight.

may your memories bring you blessing