looking for a mentor

I don’t know how your weekend went, but ours was full!  Kim was back and forth between home and Bedford for the yearly yard sale several times, Sadie and Lilly had a concert, and Levi was in a performance of 13 (it’s a musical.)  On top of that, I preached at midtown this weekend.  Everything went pretty well, but we were a wiped out family today.  The youngest girls are still at that age where they cry pretty easily when they’re tired, all the while protesting, “I’m not tired!”  Kim and the kids all hit the hay a little early tonight.

Andy and I are in the last week of our kayaking class.  We only had one student in our lesson today, but it was an eventful and fun lesson!  We decided to drive down to Milesburg, where we could put in above the rapid before the bridge.  After playing a little in the rapid we’d float down to the bridge, take out, and walk back upstream to run it again.  We were teaching our student how to surf a rapid today.  It’s a satisfying thing to see a student make progress.  Josiah looked more comfortable today than ever before, and was trying some harder things.

I had a personal first today:  I’ve been struggling with a move called a double pump.  It’s the first part of a cartwheel in a kayak.  For some reason, I can’t get the hang of it.  What’s supposed to happen is this:  placing the kayak on edge, lift the bow out of the water, then drive the bow under the water, so that you are perpendicular (sort of) to the surface.  From that point, you can continue the rotation, switching ends under the water, cartwheeling the kayak.

This guy is really good at it, even without a paddle. Seriously, this guy is amazing.  Click it…

For whatever reason, I always end up flipping the boat over my body, spinning it around me, rather than driving the bow underwater.  Andy’s got the move dialed in, but I can’t get the hang of it.  Well, today I pulled one off!  I can’t tell you what I did differently, and I couldn’t do it again when I tried.  That’s a little frustrating, but I’m encouraged!

One of my goals for the summer is to learn how to cartwheel that kayak.  I may have to call someone for a lesson.  One of the guys who sold me a kayak hopped in to show me what the boat could do before I bought it.  He walked a cartwheel all over the pond!  I’m hoping that someone can show me what I need to do differently.

That’s kind of what a mentor does, isn’t it?  Someone to walk through tough spots with you, help you figure out what corrections need to be made, someone with a little more experience, a little more expertise…

I’m thinking that we all need mentors at some point in life.  Who’s mentoring you?  What are you trying to learn?