Wisdom from the Water

ISLAND IMPRESSIONS

BY TOM PURDY

WISDOM

f r o m t h e W a t e r

When living on an island it’s not good enough to live near the water; you have to interact with it. If you don’t like the ocean, you might as well live inland. It’s fine to take the winter months off, but it’s now time to get back to the water. I wait until April to do that on a regular basis because I call Southeast Georgia home. I have become averse to cold, just like all of the folks I laughed at when I basked

in the warmth of my first St. Simons winter. Now I’m the one who visits home up North at Christmas and can’t believe I ever survived a real winter. It warms up enough around April for me to get back out there.

It’s time to clean up the kayaks and the paddleboards, neither of which I had before I lived here, and try to determine if the beach chairs have another season left in them. This is still new to me. I didn’t grow up around water, and certainly not the ocean. Well, that’s not entirely true. We had a “crick” (that’s what we called it in our neck of the woods) near our house when I was younger, and my brother and I used to play in it every chance we got. It wasn’t deep;

with a bit of a running start we could jump across it without much trouble. It was better for hunting salamanders and crayfish than any kind of water sports.

Living on St. Simons, however, created an itch to be closer to the water. The beach was the obvious starting place. It’s the gateway drug for many who get addicted to the water. Before long I was dabbling in paddle sports, in over my head before I knew it. If I’m not careful, I might end up an actual fisherman with a boat at some point. One day, friends and family from other parts of the country may shake their heads and say, “we don’t know you anymore.”

Our house is currently divided between kayaking and paddleboarding. My wife and I like the paddleboards, but our girls like the kayaks better. They worry more about falling off of a paddleboard than a kayak, even though they love the water and swim really well. Even the dog likes the kayak better, although I have learned that it can be a lot of work to get a German Shepherd back into the kayak after they fall out. It’s decidedly easier than getting them back onto a paddleboard though.

And that’s one of the things about being on the water: you have to be prepared to get wet, even when you don’t want to. The tide can come up fast and swamp your beach setup; the wake from a passing boat can tip you over; the dog can decide to jump overboard after a bird and send you careening. On a paddleboard, when the going gets rough you can drop to your knees for stability, but even that isn’t enough to keep us dry sometimes. And if you do find yourself going overboard, having a life vest is vitally important.

Even if you’re not a water person, you probably know what this is like. Being on the water has a lot of similarities to life in general. Sometimes the water is glass-calm, and other times the waves make it really difficult to navigate. Sometimes you ride high on the tide, and other times it goes out, leaving less water, but also new opportunities for discovering things we didn’t know were there. Those of us who pray know about dropping to our knees, finding a posture of prayer brings stability to life. We even know the value of the life preservers we have found in our faith and our families and our networks of support. Few of us could survive indefinitely without a God who loves us and those people and things that raise us up and help bear the burdens that want to drag us down.

We might be able to move inland to get away from the water if we don’t like getting wet, but I’ve yet to find a way to avoid all the trials of life. Instead we can foster the faith and the relationships that help us navigate our life. That work is always in season regardless of what the thermometer reads. If I can do it with a paddle in my hand, all the better.

Sometimes the water is glass-calm, and other times the waves make it really difficult to navigate. Sometimes you ride high on the tide, and other times it goes out, leaving less water, but also new opportunities for discovering things we didn’t know were there.

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ACCESSORIES M.Z. WALLACE • LODIS • SUZI ROHR ERIC JAVITS • SUNGLASSES BY GUCCI • MICHAEL KORS

3419 Frederica Road, St Simons Island 912.638.1413

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