Don’t (or do) go chasing waterfalls

I have an annoying little situation happening lately. My full of ice-water and sometimes pop glasses keep spilling on my bed.

One might immediately think of ways to solve this problem I’m facing. And one would be promptly told to just stop.

Because I don’t want to do either thing; not have my glasses of ice-water or pop conveniently on my bed, nor not be in my bed, the coziest best place on earth.

I’m not afraid to lay out these two loves I have either. If you love something or someone and it/they bring you joy, peace, laughter, love, fun, in this Year of our Apocolypse 2019, please embrace it/them with your whole heart, right now.

Circumstances change. Sometimes in an instance and like the proverbial bolt of lightning; some evolve in ways so unnoticeable around us, little by little, until one day we wake up to re-creation.

I watched a documentary today about kayakers and the pursuit of one guys dream to go down Niagara Falls.

You say dream, I say existential nightmare.

For three years he and his group of experts and friends chased waterfalls to practice, train and hone his skills.

I love a waterfall; to view, to hike up to, to listen to, marvel at. These guys though, they need to be in the middle of the water as it falls.

They are dangerously beautiful, waterfalls. Slippery rocks, pounding water, gravity.

It’s not the best practice if one wants to live, to just throw oneself down a waterfall in a container, though that’s what the first person, and only woman, to go over Niagra Falls did. In a barrel.

Annie Edson Taylor, a 63 year old charm school teacher survived the journey, along with her cat on Oct. 24, 1901.

I’m always fascinated by what what drives people to do extreme sports and acts, of any kind. In modern times, it’s a lifestyle, and a career for many athletes. A way to do what they excel at and love while making a living.

For Annie, it was a kind of desperation. In financial dire straits she hoped to get the attention of people attending the nearby Pan-American Exposition. She briefly profited from her daring stunt, but spent the next 20 years trying to make a living until she died in poverty.

She risked everything to make a change in her circumstances.

The guy who chased waterfalls for three years went to Mexico and the Pacific Northwest to train. One of the waterfalls he visited is in Eastern Washington, Palouse Falls.

I learned this waterfall existed only four years ago, and I’ve lived nearly all of my life within 2 hours of it. It feels like an otherworldly place, a 187-198 ft drop from Columbia River basalt land into a pool carved by Ice Age floods.

So this guy went over in his kayak, and the force of the water at the base was so strong it ripped him out of kayak, luckily with no serious injuries. I hiked down opposite it, to the waters below. Both valid experiences. Both of us changed by the falling water.

Things change. All of the time. Our bodies, our relationships, our politics, our religion, our environment, our minds.

We might notice the change in the air, imperceptible to many, but as close as a breath to some. We may see change and be so scared of it messing with our situation that we make a conscious choice to shut it out. Or we may not notice gradual change, for a million differing reasons, until it’s too late.

At the end of the documentary, the guy decided to cancel his trip down Niagara Falls. Despite three years of dreaming, planning, learning, sacrifice, it came down to looking over the falls at his course and feeling nothing but fear. He knew he wasn’t willing to risk everything and everyone else involved. Not yet. Not then.

His coach and friend, speaking about this decision said that over the three years of pursuing this dream, the falls hadn’t changed, but the kayaker instead, through experiences, accidents, close calls, and developing relationships, had changed.

It’s been said the world changes us or we change the world. I think it’s way more of a symbiotic relationship than we can really grasp.

Water changes rock, over millennia. There is evidence of indigenous people living near Palouse Falls 10,000 years ago. Nearly 120 years ago a woman trusted some wood and pillows to deliver her safely over pounding falls.

I don’t know what you need to change, crave changing, hope will change, see changing. I know I do.

As for my glasses of ice water and sometimes pop, I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it work. And I can always change my sheets.