Love in the Current

We first meet in the rain, he and I, brought together by chance on an expedition through the Inside Passage, and we learn about each other from the way we paddle our canoes. There’s no better way to get to know someone than by canoeing with them in disagreeable weather. It’s commonly believed that the person in the stern is in control, but the bowman wields her own power, making the vessel slice through salt-sprayed waves or spin on a dime, helping the dance or hindering it, depending on her skill. After a time, if two paddlers get along, their relationship on the water becomes second nature, an unspoken communication between bow and stern that’s as graceful as the flight of a heron. If they don’t, it’s a different story.

Happily, we got along. But it wasn’t easy. The skies closed in on us and dumped rain for days on end, drenching us to the skin. Our fingertips cracked, scraped