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Safe on the water
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
“Be careful to avoid the dead trees in the river because they can suck you in and overturn your canoe,” warned our whitewater canoeing instructor. He reinforced the message by showing our group a graphic movie that depicted the fatal consequences of not following instructions. I made a mental note of the warning. No way would I make that mistake.
The next morning we launched off on a day of whitewater paddling. The only other canoeing I’d ever done was on gentle lakes, so this was definitely going to be a new experience.
Everything was going well until my canoeing partner and I noticed our instructor up ahead. He was parked along the river bank, dangerously close to a fallen tree. It was unclear if he was stuck. Since most of the other canoes had already maneuvered past the tree, we decided to paddle over to him and see if we could help.
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