At least I won’t drown.

I am not one of those people who thrives on chaos however I am no stranger to it. As most people have experienced I’m sure; there are times when I feel like a dog chasing his tail or like I’m chasing a bus as it pulls away from the stop. Eventually the dog will probably catch his tail and if I hang in there and keep chasing the bus I catch it at the next intersection or light.

Those conditions generate energy and if the energy gets directed appropriately then the goal gets accomplished. Then there are THOSE times when in spite of my best efforts; I just can’t seem to get it done.

In the summer of 1975, I was on a family vacation in northern Ontario. I was water skiing on Lake Couchiching with two of my brothers and two of my cousins when the boat broke down. We were probably three quarters of a mile from the camp and since I was a competitive swimmer I was the one who was selected to swim back to shore and get my dad to come out and get the boat. It was early summer and the water was very cold.

As I dove off of the boat; I scraped both of my shins which started bleeding. I wanted to climb back in but they wouldn’t let me; insisting that I just start swimming. So I did.

About half way there; my legs started to cramp up; probably because the water was so cold. If you’ve ever tried to stretch out a cramp in the middle of the water; it seems next to impossible.

I decided to try treading water for a while with only my hands figuring if I do that then at least I won’t drown. The skies had started to cloud up so the idea of sculling on my back hoping the sun would help warm my legs and offer some reprieve didn’t make sense.

I had just recently seen the movie Jaws and the sounds and images from the movie were roaring in my head. As I was getting to try swimming again; I looked to my left and saw what looked like 15 sailboats headed right for me with full sails which means they were going fast. I found myself in the middle of a boat race and I didn’t have a boat.

I was swimming as fast as I could and praying that people on the boats would see me in time to avoid running me over. The thought of being eaten by a great white shark was replaced by the very real possibility of being run over by a 28 foot Hallberg-Rassy going at 20 knots.

Sail boats don’t stop or turn quickly so I started flailing my arms which meant I had to kick with my legs and the cramping started again.

The first boat did see me and some aboard had the foresight to throw a flotation device into the water which landed about fifty yards to my right. I made it to the flotation device and somehow avoided being hit by any of the boats in the first heat. The second heat would be coming soon.

I made it out of the race channel and with the help of the flotation device started making my way towards shore; slowly, very slowly.

About a quarter mile from the shore the skies opened up in one of those summer rains where you can’t see two feet in front of your face and I lost my line of sight. Although it was probably only about 10 or 15 minutes; it seemed like an eternity that I had to just stop. I was cold, exhausted and my shins were hurting like hell.

I finally made it to shore and realized that I had missed my mark and ended up having to walk about a half mile to the cabin. But it all worked out and everything turned out OK.

I tell this story because I went through a period recently that felt this way. It just seemed like in spite of my best efforts; one obstacle after the other got in the way of me getting things done the way I like to.

Master Key Experience (MKE) was one of those things. I feel like I am on the walk back to the cabin and everything will be just fine.