Are You Living It?

Our friend Leslie Dopp at Kokopelli River Guides, a great guide service and shop in Ashland, Oregon, wrote the following essay and we wanted to share it with everyone:

It’s a day off from the river. As I sit at my computer doing a little work I notice that I have a sticker posted to my bulletin board in my office. It reads “Live Your Passion”.

It struck me at that moment that I am doing just that. I am living my passion. I talk about rivers, I float down rivers, I take people down rivers, and I spend time with my family and friends on rivers. I even write about rafting and kayaking on rivers. I love the river’s feel, its’ grace, its’ occasional slow pace and sometimes fast pace, its’ smell, and sometimes my smell after a full day rafting trip.

My passion for the river has taken me to places that not many get to see. I may not have seen these places if it hadn’t been for raft guiding. I floated for 21 days in the Grand Canyon, I rafted the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, and I spent 7 years of my life raft guiding in Colorado. I met my husband, Matt, on the river and he and I have even turned our passion into a business.

I think that most people who are raft guides, kayak guides, and instructors are passionate about what they do. All of our guides are passionate about guiding and sharing what they know and love about floating down a river with their guests.

The company inspired me with their slogan and who designed this sticker is a company out of Mount Shasta, California. The design great organic t-shirts and they live their lives with passion. Live Your Passion inspired me to write this story about my passion and now I’m passing that along to you.

I’m not sure of the exact day that I realized that my place was on the river. But that day it hit me that rafting down a river was where I was meant to be.

Find what your passion is and embrace it.

By Leslie Dopp, Kokopelli River Guides