It's late May and it's a crisp morning but the sun is shining and the sky is blue. It's a very low tide, the river water is still rushing out to the ocean and it's cold. So cold that I do some kind of mixture of dog paddle and breaststroke to keep my head above the surface. We get to the sand bank and then across to the beach. The waves are small today and the ocean temperature much more comfortable than the river. We swim north behind the breaking waves, the water is clear and glassy and the sun combines with the water to make tortoise shell patterns on the sand. The waves lift me up and down as I swim and I love the feeling of an unexpected wave suddenly changing the water depth and I love the weightlessness feeling of it.
It's not easy swimming, there is a slight current against us and it feels like we're making no progress to the northern end of the beach but that's okay with me today. Today it doesn't matter if I swim on the spot. I usually breathe on the left but have switched to bi-lateral so that I can see both the incoming waves and the distance that I am from the shore. Breathing every third stroke gives my swim a steady rhythm, stroke stroke stroke breathe, stroke stroke stroke breathe, it's all that I need to do. Before we turn to head south we stop and body surf in the waves. It's fun, I'm with my friends. Our age and gender doesn't divide us at all, our common love of the water creates a companionship that others may never experience. We all 'get it'. We all know that it's not a silly idea at all to start our days with a swim even if it's in the middle of winter. It's a great idea, I could start listing reasons but they're endless. We wade back through the cooler river water and a couple rugged up on a picnic bench mention that we must be crazy. But we know that we're not the crazy ones, we're the wise and privileged ones who've just shared a beautiful morning together.
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AuthorKirrilee Archives
September 2018
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