All in the golden afternoon Full leisurely we glide; For both our oars, with little skill, By little arms are plied, While little hands make vain pretence Our wanderings to guide.
You don't paddle against the current, you paddle with it. And if you get good at it, you throw away the oars.
Sometimes it is really hard to sit in the single and go for a row. I think this is really normal. I, like probably a lot of people, burn out every once in a while. What I have learned from my own experience is that there are two reasons for it to happen. It is that I am either physically tired or mentally tired. If either of these are the case, the wisest decision is to blow off practice. Blowing off practice is healthy. I didn't understand that until I was so burnt out that I wanted to make scrap material out of my single and my oars.
Mary bring out your umbrella - The sun shines down on this fine, fine day But the ashes raining down forever Are going to turn your hair to gray. Mary keep your oars a-steady Sail away on the rising flood Keep your candle at the ready Red tides can't be told from blood. - "Miss Mary" (a common child's clapping game, dating from the time of the blitz), from Pattycake and Beyond: A History of Play
Certain anthropologists hold that man, having discovered tools, ceased to evolve biologically. Animals, never having discovered them, continue to fashion drills out of their beaks, oars out of their hind feet, wings out of their forefeet, suits of armor out of their hides, levers out of their horns, saws out of their teeth. Whether this be true or not, all authorities agree that man is the tool-using animal. It sets him off from the rest of the animal kingdom as drastically as does speech.
Don't want to slump over the oars.
When life takes the wind out of your sails, it is to test you at the oars.
The oars game me power but also taught me humility.
When the winds of life don't hit your sails, you grab the oars of life and you start pushing.
Without fear and disease, my life would be like a boat without oars.
I started rowing in December 1995. The place was Association Nautique Faontainbleau in France. A friend of mine from middle school told me that I should join him 3 times a week for rowing because my hands were so big that I would'nt require oars to row.
From the Sun I learned this: when he goes down, overrich; he pours gold into the sea out of inexhaustible riches, so that even the poorest fisherman still rows with golden oars. For this I once saw and I did not tire of my tears as I watched it.
Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.
Mankind owns four things that are no good at sea: rudder, anchor, oars and the fear of going down.
