The Weight of the Oar

There is a rhythm to survival that has nothing to do with speed. It is found in the repetition of a single motion, performed until the muscle forgets its own fatigue and the mind stops asking why. We are taught to value the finish line, but the truth is held in the middle of the exertion. It is the moment when the breath catches in the throat, when the world narrows to the wood in your hands and the resistance of the water. We push against the current not because we expect to change the river, but because the act of pushing is the only way to remain present. There is a particular silence that follows a great effort, a stillness that settles over the water like a shroud. It is a heavy, honest kind of quiet. Does the water remember the hands that disturbed it, or does it simply close over the wake, waiting for the next movement?

Kurien Koshy Yohannan has captured this intensity in his image titled Sheer Determination. It reminds me that we are all rowing against something, even when the shore is nowhere in sight. Can you feel the strain in the wood?