The girls who cried paddle board!

We just keep saying, “this is our last time paddle boarding for the season.”

You are probably sick of hearing it.

If that isn’t bad enough, we also feel compelled to keep sharing our images with you.

The sky was mostly blue and the sun was shining, but the wind was blowing something fierce.  We went out on Sunday to Minsi Lake and once again it was so windy that we spent very little time actually Stand Up Paddle boarding – most of it was “on your knees” paddle boarding. Usually we are up for anything and we find the fun in whatever we are doing when we are on the water, but not this day.  We both looked at each other and said “OK, this is not fun!”    The waves were so big that if the nose of the paddle board was not directly into the wave, the water was coming onto the boards making our pants very wet and our bare feet very cold.

However, we did not let the waves and the wind deter us from searching out the wildlife.  When we first launched onto the lake, we spotted one white swan with 2 swanlings (?).  We never got close enough for a good photo.  Then as we were rounding the corner of the lake, we spotted some white ducks in the distance.  We were very curious to see what they were.  The wind was blowing our boards that way, so we worked our way over to where they were sitting on the water.  Imagine our surprise when this is what we saw …

seagulls?  Yep!  Seagulls.  They were a long way from home.  Hopefully when the wind stopped blowing they were able to find their way back to the Atlantic Ocean!

We made the most of it, paddling our arms off trying to get back to where we launched, laughing and almost crying all the way back.

Our gift at the end of the adventure was seeing a Praying Mantis. They always seem so special to both of us and so we had to look up   the animal medicine for our new totem animal (or in this case, insect) messenger.

 Here is one interpretation:

Usually the Praying Mantis makes an appearance when we’ve flooded our lives with so much business, activity, or chaos that we can no longer hear the still small voice within us. Taking a step back and some simple meditation would be in order here because the external din we’ve created needs to be quieted so that we can come back to our own truth. The Praying Mantis always comes to us when we need peace, quiet and calm in our lives.

Another perspective:

You call me Praying Mantis, because I hold my front legs in the position of prayer. You should call me Preying Mantis, because when I am focused on having something, these same front legs grasp it and hold it securely. That is part of my mystique. Whatever I focus my attention on becomes mine…and then the twist is that I become it, as well.

We both think it is a message for us to take some time to meditate and get still so we can hear the inner voice that is trying to tell us that maybe it really is time to put the paddle boards away for the season! Just joking. We both know that something new is trying to be born and we need to slow down so that we can listen. In the meantime, we hear that today is going to be a great day, so we are headed to Tobyhanna Lake.