You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.”
A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. Then you can go on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
“There” is no better than “here,” When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that again, looks better than “here.”
Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need; what you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
The answers lie inside you. The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
Test the rules: apply them to paddling! To see if these rules make sense for LIFE, apply them to PADDLING. Are they true there? Consider for example:
[In kayaking ]there are no mistakes,only lessons. FALSE!
If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.TRUE!
“There” is no better than “here,” When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that again, looks better than “here.” I’LL HAVE TO CONSIDER THIS WHILE HANGING UPSIDE DOWN UNDERWATER IN MY COCKPIT WHILE CONSIDERING WHETHER OR NOT IT IS WORTHWHILE TO ROLL!
As a health care worker I've come to realize first hand that death or illness can take you unexpectedly. Plus, life is too short not to enjoy yourself and appreciate others. I'm not sure how this relates to paddling exactly.
But this I do know, appreciate every day you can paddle your kayak and sleep in your own bed (or tent). It beats the hell out of a hospital or hospice.
I’m really unhappy with Rule #1. …and here I thought that if I bought those pills advertised on that infomercial (along with the thigh master and the butt blaster), I’d wake up one morning with the Dream Machine. And now you’re telling me I’m stuck with the one I’ve got? Well, pooh. Do you think I can get my money back?
very good rules It would be nice if everyone was grateful, thankful and appreciative. As for rule #10, I do my best not to forget and paddling helps me keep things into proper perspective.
The next time you’re out on the water & the view is simply amazing…yell for joy at the top of your lungs! It’s very theraputic. Other boaters will think we’ve been sniffing sea salt, but who cares?