In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Cause, Meet Effect.”
I love walking along the beach in the morning viewing the sunrise with a cup of coffee or tea. I spend some days at the beach kayaking paddling through the nearby mangroves, exploring and enjoying the silent solitude, and viewing tropical birds.
On this particular day, mother-nature was displaying its awesome splendor of an azure blue sky, and a warm gentle breeze blowing
One day after three hours of paddling around the mangroves, I arrived back on shore, where I take my bicycle and pedal towards one of the nearby local Bistros lunch.
Upon peddling back to the shoreline, I sit in my beach chair, with a good book in hand to begin soaking in the beauty of the day.
Twenty minutes into my book, I thought it would be a great idea to strap on my personal floatation vest, hop into the kayak for an afternoon paddle.
I paddled away from the shoreline when just about a mile away from the beach, I noticed the wind speed increased and was constantly blowing. I turned to look back and saw a thunderstorm on the horizon, possibly a half hour away. I immediately turned the kayak around and began paddling towards the shoreline.
At just under a mile, I can clearly see the beach front, and my car, however, after ten minutes and what seem to be a couple of hundred paddle strokes, I recognized, my paddling efforts towards shore were in vain. With every stroke of my paddle, I barely gained one or two feet at the most.
Now, I’m just the average hard-headed, determined male, so I double my efforts when I realized the tide was heading out away from the shoreline.
Now, for those of you who don’t know much about paddling a small water craft in these conditions, imagine the swirling current of water circling your kitchen or bathroom sink, and me paddling against the current in the opposite direction.
This effort became a wonderful afternoon workout, better than any aerobic Spin, Step or Zumba class.
After five more minutes of paddling, I’m not making any headway towards the shoreline which is a little less than half a mile away. On shore, I can see my vehicle and my group of friends starting to gather.
I continue in my power stroking when I take one end of the paddle dipping the bladed end, into the water to check the water’s depth, I smiled with enthusiasm when it touched the sandy bottom.
I immediately, take off my personal floatation vest, jump into the water and began pushing the kayak ahead of me, as I swam in its wake.
After fifteen or twenty minutes, I walked out of the water and onto the beach with stiff arms and legs, dragging my kayak out of the water towards the car.
My beach friends, start to gather around, when my friend Samuel stated “I thought, you knew, you don’t go kayaking in the afternoons in southwest Florida, because of the afternoon storms. ”
Embarrassingly, I explained how the beauty of mother-nature, with her warm gentle breezes and my kayak lured me into the water for an afternoon workout.
We all laughed aloud until a clasp of thunder took our attention away as we all looked to see the ominous dark clouds drifting out of the south-east to deliver its scheduled afternoon thunderstorms.
I learned a very valuable lesson that day, which is to check the tide times and weather forecast before kayaking and if you can see an approaching summer thunderstorm do not put the kayak into the water.
Some days it is best to be satisfied with the casual relationship of sitting on the beach, listening to the tranquil sounds of the water lapping against the shoreline, feeling the warm gentle breeze against my body, and reading a book.
https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/cause-meet-effect/