Learn to listen all over again.
Saturday, my friend BR took this photo of me just after we had finished the novice B race in the McFarlane - an annual 4th of July race down at Waikiki, a time of year when the surf is up, which makes operating a canoe a little more interesting.
Even as I was exuberant with my first race, coach reminded us that we really weren't acting like a team out on the water. Distractions, focusing on our own paddling, rather than getting in sync with the team.
Paddling very much reminds me of the Benedicting ways of praying the Psalms, and what a teacher once told me about brothers trying to pray the psalm in a way that was not only rhythmically connected with others praying, but was also in a way that allowed them to hear the voice of the person on either side of them, so that they were neither to little, nor too loud. This reminds me of the singing rules by John Wesley, in which he talks about neither lagging behind nor running ahead of other singers.
While we are individuals who do not lose our distinctiveness, the gifts unique to our personal creation, we are also called to live into more authentic communion with others; paddling reminds me of the importance of trying to become part of a group motion or a group way of life's fullness, over than an individual self - we cannot live alone. The boat only moves when we are reality paying attention to one another, timing to one another.
The empty hull of the canoe fills with six individuals, who either quickly learn to become one, or, who fight against one another and the waves for a muggy, thick trail of sweat lagging behind the tails of faster, more unified teams.
