Last year, I was fortunate to be a part of the Pulling Together Journey 2010.  19 canoes paddled in the Salish Sea from Port Moody to Semiahmoo in 9 days.  There were over 200 participants.  I paddled with the s-yewen s-nexwilh Spirit Canoe crew.  I never paddled before, but I felt guided to do so.  I met so many fantastic people.  Our crew had 10 paddlers and one amazing skipper.  The canoe experience was life-changing for me.  I learned about community, trust, and interdependence.  I felt reconnected.

One of the things we learned as a crew is to dispel any negative thoughts before each paddle.  It seemed like a peculiar notion, but the claim is negative thoughts slows down the canoe.  I did not believe this until the third day when it took a lot of effort to propel the canoe.  It was like we were standing still.  When we met in a circle to reflect on our paddle, it was that someone had negative feelings prior to our paddle that day.  We had to release those thoughts to free the canoe.  Success.  We returned back to being one of the faster canoes in the fleet.  It was effortless.  We were a cohesive crew.

So, back to my curling game.  The opposing skip was saying unfriendly comments about my team under her breath to me during the game.  I got annoyed and tried to keep my distance.  In the end, I built up negative thoughts of my own.  No one was having fun on my team, including me.  I was a crabisaurus, we made very few shots, and we lost.  In hindsight, I should have told the skip not talk about my team in that way.  I said, “No one is trying to miss their shot.”  I should have said a lot more.