Back To Pool School
I felt like a failure with my recent attempt to enjoy some time at the pool because after finally getting there for only the second time all summer, I was only there an hour before I got restless and left.
More recently, and after finishing the three stories I was working on back-to-back, I returned to the pool and had a different experience.
This time I really I saw the surface of the water ripple like a 60’s light show as I breast stroked laps through it.
I saw the drowning gnat. In fact – lifting it onto my hand and transporting it out of the water and onto the cement – I may have saved its life.
I heard a little girl about 4 years old ask a boy her age if he would marry her.
I felt the cement under my wet feet as I walked back dripping to my lounge chair after swimming.
I ate cherries and read an interview with Billy Collins, underlining favorite parts with a pen.
Last week I felt like a self-conscious observer at the pool. This week, although I only stayed a little longer than last week’s hour, I stayed long enough to realize that it’s not the amount of time spent at an activity that determines its value, but the presence we bring to it.
August 21st, 2009 12:46 pm
I still get sad when bugs drown in the pool. It was probably my first lesson about death. My favorite thing about the pool are all the sounds. The splashes, the squeals, the whistles (from lifeguards – not oglers).
August 21st, 2009 12:52 pm
Hmmm. So many bugs….so many pools…
August 21st, 2009 5:34 pm
What an interesting pool experience and what a great composition about it. I would have not had the creativity to make a post about something like this.
August 21st, 2009 9:39 pm
Lovely commentary. Good advice.
August 22nd, 2009 12:13 am
Yes. As Ram Dass said…..”Be here now”.
August 22nd, 2009 9:12 am
not everyone would observe all that !!
August 22nd, 2009 9:39 am
I wish I had gone to the pool with you!!
August 22nd, 2009 4:15 pm
Sounds like a swimming meditation!