Lessons Learned on the Flint River

If These Heels Could Talk they would say, "when you feel like you are about to sink the simple dog paddle may help save your life."

I grew up in Middle Georgia right smack dab on the Flint River.  The Flint River was very educational and I learned many a lesson from its banks. 

I drive across that Flint River bridge twice a day, every day.  And every time I travel over that country bridge my mind flashes back to summer after summer.  My brothers and my cousins and I raised some country hell on that river.

Now I ain't saying that city people can't raise their own kind of hell, I wouldn't know.  I only know what I know and it was far from city living.

I know looking for crawdads under the rocks under that bridge.

I know looking for my own fish bait with my best friend.   I know taking  that fish bait going fishing, getting too hot to fish and then skinny dipping in the river until we heard the convicts working on the side of the road.

I know jumping out of poison oak covered trees. I know hiding beer in the creek to keep it cool.   I know cutting off your best hand-me down blue jeans to make your best cut-off blue jean shorts.

I know my brothers riding my favorite bike off into that river until the chain was rusted. (I loved that bike)

I know floating that river. I know falling in that river and I know making memories by that river.

I also know that sometimes you have to sink or swim in that river.

As with any redneck parent the best way to teach a young lad how to swim is to spend hundreds of dollars on swim lessons getting them prepared for their first encounter with the river.  Okay, not really.   I think the redneck approach is actually quiet effective and I took a few life lessons from my swim lesson. Notice I said swim lesson. It only took me one time and I knew what I had to do.

I was seven years old and I was surrounded by my parents and a few aunts and uncles.  My dad says to me, "okay when we toss you in the air, it is going to be fun, you will splash in the water and how fun is that?" "When you come down you better be paddling for your life because if you don't that current right there is going to take you right on down to Flat Shoals." 

Hmmmmm...... okay.... well this seems like a party I should have missed is what I was thinking. But what  is a seven year old to do.  

So in the air I went and down I came.  SPLASH!!!! Right in that muddy river.  And here is where the lessons come.

1. Sometimes it is best to keep your mouth shut even when you feel like screaming.  It could mean the difference between you drowning or surviving.  You don't always have to open your mouth to be effective. 
2. Don't panic. Take a deep breath. Get your wits about you and keep your eye on the shore and on that spot where you can see yourself sitting.  If you take your eyes off of that very spot, that very place you want to be, you will end up off course.
3. When you feel like it is easier to go with the flow, just remember sometimes going with the flow will take you to a place you don't belong.  It can  sometimes take years to find your way back to where you are supposed to be.
4. Swimming against the current just might make you a stronger person.  It will definitely make you appreciate the times when you can just wade the water.
5. Be thankful for the opportunities you are given to learn something new even when what you are learning  and the process in which you are learning is not your first choice. There are lessons everywhere.
6. And lastly, when someone says, "oh you will love this." It is okay to question the motive in which they are trying to persuade you.  Is it beneficial to them, to you or to the both of you? But also know that sometimes decisions that are made, you have no choice in the matter.  It is your job to process the situation and dog paddle on.  

In my case it worked out for the best. Although I will never be an Olympic swimmer, I am not afraid of the water. I do not know how to dive, nor do I care to know how to dive. I can do a mean cannon ball in which my eleven year old son thinks it is hilarious.  I guess when you are bottom heavy like myself,  you can really make a splash.


The only bad part about the canon ball is you can't wear your best heels while performing this move.