Go Beyond

I learned a lot about nutrition and electrolytes while preparing for and doing the Texas Water Safari with my son. Jonathan set up a nutrition regimen for us and also a schedule for adding electrolytes to our water supply. I can’t begin to calculate the number of calories that we burned as we paddled day and night throughout the 260-mile course. It was obvious to us whenever we were running low on fuel and amazing how an intake of nutrition would pep us up and help us to paddle on to the next checkpoint. The math is simple: our bodies need the right nutrition to function properly. I understand that equation even better now after having completed the Texas Water Safari.

I also learned about the value of another type of nutrition along the 260-mile course — the encouragement of friends and family. My daughter Niki served as our team captain and shared our story along the way via Facebook. My assistant Amy Granger also reposted Niki’s updates. The result was that many of the folks following our journey posted notes of encouragement online in response to these updates. In addition to resupplying us with water at each checkpoint, Niki also shared these notes of encouragement with us. It’s amazing how hearing the encouraging words of others refreshed us and renewed our determination to paddle on. Encouragement matters!

One of the sweetest and most encouraging gestures of all awaited us when we finally arrived home. Jonathan and I were exhausted and had slept most of the way home from the finish line at Seadfrift, Texas. As we pulled in to our driveway, Niki woke us up and told us that there was a poster taped to our garage door. To our surprise there was a large poster with congratulatory words from the Kingsland staff. I can’t tell you how much it meant to us to read each of these notes. To say that we were excited and blessed by these notes would be an understatement. We could not stop smiling.

When I was a young minister a friend gave me some great advice: Don’t miss the things in people’s lives that cannot be repeated. I am grateful to each of you who took a moment to congratulate us. Your notes mean even more to us because doing the Texas Water Safari for the first time with my son is one of those events that cannot be repeated. That fact alone adds greater weight to each word and signature on the poster and to each note posted on Facebook. Thank you for nourishing us with your encouraging words from the start of the race all the way to our return to our home in Katy. Jonathan and I will treasure our poster for years to come.