What’s wrong with this picture?

Other than the mess in my garage, what I find wrong with this picture is that my kayak is hanging from the roof.  Today is -24 degrees Celsius and all the lakes and rivers in the area have been frozen for three months now and will be for at least another three months.  The reason I have a problem with my kayak hanging form the roof is because of peace.  Inner peace to be specific.  Being out on the water paddling my boat is one of the few times in my life where is have inner peace.  I define inner peace as a point in time where there is nothing else happening in the world or in my life; everything  just melts away and I am not thinking about anything accept what I am doing.  I had one professor last semester for my ED Aesthetics class describe it as an aesthetic experience, but inner peace is a better for me to describe it.  I am very busy between family, school, Scouts, and life in general and sometimes I need to just get away from it all and not have anything to worry about.  That boat hanging from the ceiling gives me that.  I can put it in the water and within ten minutes nothing else matters; one stroke after another leaving my busy life and all the things I have to worry about behind for a little while.

Another time I have inner peace is with my family.  In the picture above we went out snowshoeing with friends.  You would not think that snowshoeing with four kids ranging in age from 2 to 10 would allow for inner peace, but I did for me.  We went out on the Trans Canada Trail here in Regina.  We snowshoed for half and hour, stopped for hot chocolate and snacks, and snowshoed back to the vehicles.  It was a wonderful time.  Only an hour but one awesome hour.

Most of my moments of inner peace happen in nature; kayaking, snowshoeing, hiking, camping, canoeing, biking, and even watching a sunrise or sunset.  But sometimes all it takes is being with or in the arms of the ones I love.  Inner peace moments generally do not happen often enough in my busy life, but when they do I am reminded of what life is all about.

Darin