Drive and Recovery

Sometimes life is like rowing.

In racing a boat, each rower sits on a sliding seat.  They roll forward on their seat to put the oars in the water, then push back with their legs to pull the oar through the water, finishing the stroke.  The rolling up portion, when the oar is out of the water, is called the recovery.  The pushing portion, when the oar is in the water and you’re moving the boat forward, is called the drive.  The drive is where you push with all your strength, and then you’re supposed to relax on the recovery.

{photo from www.carlosdinares.com}

I’ve felt like I’ve been struggling with this ratio.  I tend to want to give a moderate effort during the whole piece, instead of a hard effort during the drive and relaxing during the recovery.  I’m not sure why, but that doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that I do it correctly: hard on the drive, relax on recovery.

The same goes for life.  We have ratios.

There is an appropriate time to rest and recover (e.g. Sundays, bedtime, etc.) and there is an appropriate time to push at full pressure (e.g. work, exercise, school, service).  Give your all during the drive so that you can fully rest during the recovery.  Really rest during the recovery so that you can give your all during the drive.  We are not meant to row through life at a moderate, unchanging intensity. 

Thoughts from Ellie.  Take them as you wish. :)