The Lost Paddle has been found. I went for a quick lunch-time paddle today having delayed the opportunity from this morning. I was all set to go to a different launching site when I decided at the last minute to go to the Bahia/Mission Bay. It was a gorgeous day and the anticipation I had building up inside told me it was going to be a good -albeit brief session. Much to my surprise "Hector" the Parks & Rec guy that maintains the grounds at the Bahia flagged me down from 50 yards away. I remembered having giving him some handouts with information on the lost paddle as I started a jog towards him. He disappeared briefly to go into a service closet at the public bathrooms where he was parked and emerged a second or two later saying "is this what you are looking for?" all the while holding the paddle, the lost paddle up in the air. I identified every mark on it and every piece of writing on it before I approached. Knowing for certain that it was mine he handed it over. And just like that the paddle was back in my hands. I thanked him, smiled, and thanked him some more. I think I let out a shout of happiness and asked if he would walk with me over to my car. Along the way I mentioned to him how the paddle was more of sentimental value than anything else, how it is custom made-to-measure from a dear friend, and a master of dozens of Molokai Channel races. The same steersman I raced 72 miles in open Tahitian ocean with our brothers-in-paddling, I thought about the joy that my wife and daughters & me have by simply being out on the water paddling. I gave Hector a well deserved cash reward. You see he found it among someone less fortunate that lives in the elements there near the Bahia. I asked that he extend the reward to the person that found it. The kind of person he is and his character tells me he will pay it forward. I wish them both many days of sunshine, a green light wherever they walk or drive,that their milk may never spoil, that their flowers always bloom, that their breadbasket always be full and that their children be as forthright as they were with me. Karma. It's a good thing.
