It could have been a summers day apart from the air temperature of 4 celcius and a water temperature of 10. It was calm, serene and there wasn’t even a ripple on the water… until a seal broke the surface and started following me. Maybe he was curious, wondering about the weird un-webbed creature bobbing around in what was his element ?
The water was crystal clear and there, winking at me from the sandy bottom, I spied some cool curly shells that swayed with the waves – within reach too – wahoo. I came home with more treasures, not driftwood this time either.
Any day your feet leave the ground when you’re in the water, counts as a swim. It doesn’t have to be a marathon event, and most of mine are quick 15-20 minute dips. You don’t have to swim for miles in a high tech wetsuit to count as a swimmer. Some people do and that’s fine. Not me, I’m happy in my own skin. I push my own boundaries and have developed a habit that is extremely liberating, even without the wetsuit. I’ve been tempted by the swim gloves but they felt alien – kinda like posh marigold gloves 😛 only way more expensive so they were a no no.
Pulling on my togs is the first step – and with it comes the intention; ‘They’re on now so I might as well’. It’s not always easy, desire and inclination are often interrupted – by the weather mostly. Looking out the window wondering what the weather’s gonna do, what’s separating me from a swim?
Lots of things can stop me but the rain isn’t one of them. I’m getting wet anyway 🤪 Safety always comes first though, so wind, waves and current are all factors for me; I’m not a strong swimmer – slow and steady more like, so, being swept out to sea, or getting caught out by a tide on the turn and swimming on the spot going nowhere have, and continue to be a concern. I’ve been known to swim in little more than thigh high water for that very reason, but hey a swim is a swim.
Need I mention the cold 😳 My swim lasts about as long as it takes for my left hand to lose all feeling and cramp into a claw like vice. [feels as though I’ve broken it😩] When the seasons change, you notice it – the water temperature doesn’t change all that much – it’s the air temperature that makes the water appear colder. April through October happy days. November to March though, is hardcore to say the least. You get pins and needles with the cold and no, you don’t become immune to it, rather, the pros outweigh the cons.
When I get in the water now, there is no knee jerk reaction that upsets the normal breath, I breathe normally – I do however, utter the odd profanity with the first few strokes, or, when a leg or arm touches something foreign, harmless or otherwise, in the water. Most of the time it’s seaweed but there have been close encounters with jellyfish. [They give me the heeby jeebies. I don’t care, even if they are the harmless kind…yeuch]
The sea has stolen my heart in more ways than one. I could beach comb for hours scouring the shore line for heart shaped pebbles, or driftwood and sometimes even sea glass. I’ve not found a message in a bottle yet, but you’d never know.
I don’t claim to be a good swimmer but I’m better than I was this time last year. I do the breast stroke mostly. I can do the free style or over arm, but haven’t got the hang of the breathing with head under the water right, so i guess I can’t do it…yet. That’s the next goal. It’ll happen one of these days.
One thing I do know – swimming keeps you in the moment. My head empties and for those 10 or 15 minutes, it’s me, my breathing, my stroke [such as it is] and keeping my head above water – well, most of the time anyway😉. It doesn’t get old. Every single time, there is a sense of wonder, whether it be the colour of the water or the play of phosphoressence at my finger tips as I move through the water.
Life at the moment is not the perfect vision we had expected of the year that is 2020. So swimming offers me a sense of calm surrender and silent discovery in turbulent times. Like the tides and the weather fronts, we all experience highs and lows, complete with flotsam and jetsam. I’ve left a part of me in the water during these last few months and found another. Maybe we needed this interruption to our ‘normal’ – to recalibrate, to wake up, to appreciate ALL the things we take for granted. And maybe, just maybe, to nudge us in the direction we should be going in, the one that sits right, feels better, makes your heart happy, and your life less complicated.
clodaghstraveltales 