Post-Awesome God-Experience Syndrome (P.A.G.E.S.)

Hey Kaleo Six! Did you know that "Kaleo Six" is still carved in the sandbank on the path down to Cox Bay? I went surfing there this evening and saw it, and thought I would update you and hopefully encourage you.

Sarah and I have had a wonderful almost-three-weeks in Ucluelet, deciding each morning what we will do that day, which has included lots of time on the beach, some exploring and a little surfing (including with Alivia and her family the other day). This is how our evening ended today:

Sarah took that photo and is very proud of it. We are starting to relax and refresh, but on Tuesday we will be heading home and Wednesday I'll be back at work. So your prayers are appreciated.

An awesome thing happened today. We decided to hike in to a beach we had heard about and located on Google maps. We went the only way to get to it, which is to hike into Half Moon Bay (a gorgeous crescent beach), then over the rocks for a couple kilometers to this beach that we don't know the name of. Wonderful place, and this photo doesn't do it justice:

We had just walked the length of the beach, and I went to explore a sandy-bottom canyon at the end while Sarah sat on the beach. Coming back out, I saw a very strange thing in the water and suddenly realized it was the fluke (fin) of a whale. It was so close to shore that at first I thought it was dead. But as I got closer i realized it was a young grey whale, about 6 meters long, feeding along the surf line, not ten feet from shore (click on photo to make it bigger):

I followed it along the shore for fifty meters, and then it turned and I followed it back. Finally it surfaced for a moment and breathed, then dove and disappeared into deeper water.

Like I said, amazing.

As I was sitting on the beach I thought about what a gift from God our whale experience was. And thinking about that made me think of you and the amazing God-experience we all just had, called Kaleo Six. I want to make a few observations from my small God-experience this afternoon that I think relate to Kaleo, kinda like putting it in a test tube.

1. I am very grateful for the experience God gave us of seeing the whale today, and will always remember it.
2. I found that after the experience I thought of some things I wished had gone differently. Like I wish I had set the camera on video mode rather than just take pictures. And I can't do a thing about that now.
3. I found myself scanning the water with my binoculars, wishing the whale would come back and I could repeat the experience.
4. I think I enjoyed the rest of our time on the beach just a little less because of it. The beach was great, but not as awesome without the whale.
5. As we went on with the day, though the whale experience was still on my mind, new experiences made that day even better. I got to ride a wave all the way from the break right into shore.
6. I love the chance to talk about the God-experience we had today, and I'm using it to encourage and teach you about dealing with Post-Awesome God-Experience Syndrome.

Is that helpful? Is this what you are experiencing?

I have now watched many students leave Kaleo, and some do better than others. I have found that dwelling on the experience is like leaving a peach on the table too long.

Eat the peach. Digest it, make it useful. Don't just stare at it until it rots.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.