Payson Lakes: Finding Places of Connection & Wholeness

Paddling Payson Lakes in the Fall

Hey Friend, welcome to The View From My Kayak series! It isn’t just about kayaking. It’s about having courage to make your dreams come true even when you are scared, feel weak, are unsure, doubt yourself, and are in it alone. I share how I overcame obstacles and ventured out on my first few kayak excursions. There were victories, mishaps, danger, and glorious moments as well as some great life-lessons learned along the way. In the end I climbed the mountain of doubt and gained confidence and achievement. I hope to inspire you to go after your own dreams and make them happen. Life is too short to only wish for the life you long for. Instead, pick up that dream, dust it off, and start living it.

This is the 4th of 13 articles. If you haven’t had a chance to read my previous posts #1, #2 , and #3 in this series you may want to check them out too! See the end of this article for links to additional articles in this series.

If you want help turning YOUR dreams into reality, I’ve got you! See below to grab your free copy of my FREE Big Dream Planning Worksheet. I want to help you overcome the obstacles you face and take the steps you need to start living your dreams too. You’ve got this, my Friend!

Arriving at the lake.

There are some places where we feel really connected to God, connected to our true self, connected to our world in a way that makes us feel whole. That’s how I feel when I’m in a kayak. No, it’s not the kayak itself at all. It’s being in God’s great natural world. Right in the middle of it. Surrounded by it. Seeing it from a new view. Enveloped in it. Feeling it with all my senses.

Kayaking Payson Lakes was that kind of experience for me the day I kayaked there for the first time.

If you read post #3 in this series: Close Call to Catastrophe, then you know how hard it was for my friend Des and I to even make it up to the lake that afternoon safely with our kayaks. After much hard work, determination, and help WE MADE IT!

When we pulled into the parking lot near the lake, the late afternoon sun was heavy in the west casting long purple shadows. When I’d been there hiking in the summer it was busy with lots of people. Now in October we were alone except for a couple or two walking along the distant path that circles the lake.

By now most of the yellow quaking aspen leaves had fallen. The bare branches contrasted with the thick green pines that surrounded the lake. We were amazed at how low the water level was, leaving a long walk for us with our kayaks on rocky beach to the shoreline.

My impressions on the water.

The way the sunlight glittered on the water was so beautiful!

The camaraderie and conversation with a good friend was so satisfying!

The total, enveloping silence was SOUL satisfying!

The reflections on the water were mesmerizing.

As the sun slipped into the horizon I felt all my stress fall off my shoulders and my heart felt lightened. I felt I could breathe easier.

There was a time when my friend Des paddled silently to her own space on the lake while I pulled out my watercolors and painted, dipping my paint brush in the water outside my kayak. I felt joy studying the trees, shoreline, and chaos of colors swimming in the water.

I felt immense gratitude to God for His creation and the beauty with which He crafted our world:

The color.

The glittering light rippling on the water.

The images cast upon the surface of the lake in a surreal upside-down reflection.

The bald eagle lighting from the top of a tall pine.

The vastness of the blue sky above us.

My heart swelled with THANKSGIVING!

Life lessons learned from this adventure.

As evening came the deep shadows fell across the lake and we knew it was time to head home. Bummer. We both could have stayed for another hour or more. It was just lovely.

As I reflected on the hard work it took to get to the lake that day, I realized life is a lot like that day. Sometimes it seems to take all your effort to just get on the road going where you want to go. Then, you get derailed. It takes determination and hard work to get back on track and finally get where you want to be. But in the end, all the hard work is soooo worth it.

It seems to me that most valuable things in life take lots of hard work to get there.

That includes living our dreams. It’s never easy. It always takes work and planning. But I learned this day that the hard work it takes to live your dreams is worth it one hundred times. Spending time in this place of connection and wholeness filled me and was worth all the effort it took to get there.

Friend, if you have a dream you want to live but feel stuck, let me help you! I created printable planning sheets to help us get to the work of making dreams come true, one step at a time. You can easily grab it for free at the end of this article.

Read the rest of the articles in this series:

Grab your FREE printable Big Dream Planning Worksheet here!

This printable Big Dream Planning Worksheet is my gift to you when you subscribe to receive inspirational notes from me in your inbox (don’t worry! I’ll only send great stuff and never send spam!). When you sign up you’ll have access to my private Gifts for You Collection here at my website where I keep the planning worksheet and a whole lot of other awesome resources to help you live life more abundantly.

Do you want more abundance in your life? Start with the Abundance Toolkit! It’s my FREE gift to you when you join my list to receive weekly tips and inspiration.

Yes! I want more abundance! Send me the toolkit.

The Abundant Toolkit is my gift to you when you subscribe to receive inspirational notes from me in your inbox (don’t worry! I’ll only send great stuff and never send spam!). When you sign up you’ll have access to my private Gifts for You Collection here at my website where I keep the Abundance Toolkit and a whole lot of other awesome resources to help you live life more abundantly.

What’s in the Abundance Toolkit?

- 13 page printable workbook.
- 3 tools to help you identify and apply principles of abundance in your life right now.
- Questions to help you determine where you’re out of balance with abundance.
- Specific and personal actions you can take to live life more abundantly starting today.

When you learn and use these three tools and take the actions in this toolkit, you can feel more peace, joy, happiness, confidence, and purpose in your life. More abundance.