The Reservoir of Friendship

Friendship floated smoothly through the still backwaters of the Aaron River Reservoir.

As the lone kayak glided along, the two friends enjoyed the ebb and flow of rich conversation and quiet togetherness – the kind that can change your life.

Since it was a weekday, they had the place to themselves for the most part. The paddler had some deep questions on his mind, and he was grateful to have the uninterrupted time with his wise friend. Meanwhile, the old guide knew the waters well, so he served as the trip's navigator. He led them patiently along, savoring the deep joy of this shared experience with the young paddler that he knew well and cared deeply about.

Forty years earlier, a 300-yard dam had been built to turn a small, meandering stream into a large reservoir. This provided the coastal town of Cohasset, Massachusetts with needed drinking water reserves. As a by-product, it also yielded an ideal spot for kayaking as the built-up waters filled in and around the area’s irregular hills and valleys to create all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore and get lost among.

As they probed the irregular shoreline, the friends enjoyed quite a few glimpses of others who also frequented these waters. In one cove, spotted turtles silently waddled close to the shore. Out in the deeper waters, a safe distance from the kayak, a great blue heron made a dramatic splash landing. And up above, a smattering of wispy-white clouds served as a picturesque backdrop for a lone red-tail hawk that circled, patrolling the reservoir and its surrounding hills.

As they explored together, the old guide wove some of these sightings into word pictures to accentuate the rich wisdom and perspective he offered his young companion. The paddler took occasional breaks to jot notes in a journal, not wanting to lose the pearls of wisdom being offered. A floating red fishing bobber, long separated from the tangled line of its disappointed angler, triggered a new line of conversation about a difficult relationship. The old guide offered insights into what might be going on in the life and in the heart of the paddler's estranged friend. The paddler felt sad about having been so quick to judge, and regretfully pondered the missed opportunities where he could have loved that friend better. But the guide encouraged him to look mostly toward the future, with resolve to love well and work to restore that friendship.

Around midday they came upon a spot with a walkable slope and some large rocks to sit on, so this became their picnic ground. Over a sandwich they continued their conversation, while enjoying the change of vantage point and the break from the confines of the kayak. Good friendships are marked by comfortable rhythms as topics change naturally, as friends are equally willing to gently explore deep things or to playfully talk about shallower nothingness.

After lunch, the friends explored the southern end of the reservoir, and the conversation shifted toward the paddler's core questions about next steps in his life and career. In one cove, they discovered a winding, narrow channel through some dense trees that lined its sides. Following it, they came to a spot where the passageway suddenly opened into a surreal scene. The waterway ahead was bounded by the ends of two abandoned concrete bunkers that had become partially submerged when the reservoir was created four decades ago.

The bunkers were part of a World War Two ammunition depot that once stored dynamite and bombs that awaited their turn to be transported along short rail lines to the naval shipyard on the coast a mile or so away. Long since emptied and abandoned, the concrete walls at the ends of the long bunkers created a channel along which the paddler found himself suddenly floating down memory lane.

Twenty years earlier, the paddler had been a military officer, supervising a brave "ammo" team that stored and assembled bombs and missiles in an ammunition bunkers just like these. His thoughts and feelings floated back in time, and he and the guide had a long talk about those years. They discussed the mix of good and hard memories back there, as well as in the subsequent life and career chapters that had unfolded since then. The guide helped the paddler see some patterns in his past, and gain some insights that would help him plot his course going forward.

They also reminisced about how that ammo season was around the same time when their friendship had begun. The trip down memory lane helped the paddler see how relationships had gradually become more important to him than career aspirations, and how helping guide others was now among his own highest values.

The old guide was a master of using imagery and experiences like this, along with his caring presence and friendship, to help paddlers remember and process, heal and grow, learn and dream. The alignment was so strong that one might think the guide was somehow creating these experiences to season their conversation and offer memorable insights and lessons.

Soon it was time to head back to my original launch point. As I approached the north shoreline near the dam, I greeted a few late-afternoon kayakers who were just preparing to launch on their own journeys. As I pulled my single-seat, orange kayak out of the water, the newcomers remarked how wonderful it must have been to have had the reservoir all to myself for the day.

“Oh, I wasn’t alone,” I replied, without elaborating. And as I began to tie my kayak atop my van, I thought to myself that I hoped that they, too, knew the Guide, and that they would enjoy time with him out on the reservoir as I had just done. Or if they did not know him yet, I prayed that they would soon discover the sweetness of his friendship and the wisdom of his counsel.

And I pray the same for you. Fellow paddler, have you spent time on the “reservoir of friendship” with the Guide? In addition to kayaking, he loves long walks, chats by a warm fire on a chilly night or under a shady tree on a warm summer’s day, or any other time and setting where we may slow ourselves down, turn our hearts toward him, and enjoy some real time with our Father.

[scroll down for some questions to ponder and some tips for spending extended time with God]