A Fascinating Button
I leave just a little before 11:00 and today does not quite have the glorious warmth and sunshine as yesterday. It is fairly warm I guess and it is perfectly sunny at my apartment complex but as I stare out toward the harbor on my way down Golden Lantern, it looks like I am gazing into a completely different climate. It’s like someone put up a huge video projection screen and we are streaming live from some other part of the world. Once I turn right onto Selva, it’s all over and the sun is but a memory. Well I figure this can all change rather quickly (or not). Chances are strong that it will be a lovely sunny day all around by the time I am well into my swim.
I get to the parking lot and it is nice and warm as I emerge from my truck. Grey skies, grey water…whatever. When I get to the beach it is a mid tide and the surf looks a touch bigger than it was yesterday. It would be hard to get much smaller. There is a woman standing at the water’s edge right at my take off point and now I am completely disoriented. I mean, how am I supposed to get into the water with her standing there? Never mind the fact that we have a mile of empty beach here. She is in MY spot! Not to worry. I can recognize crazy when I see it. So I let my crazy self sulk to the side while I walk just a little further down the beach and get in the water. There there, was that so difficult? Maybe a little.
I start to swim south and the water temperature is the same luscious warm as it has been the last week now. Visibility is not quite as good as yesterday. That might be because of the lack of light. All in all it was a fairly uneventful swim but fantastic. I find myself focusing on a metaphor that I often think about in the water. There are all kinds of difficulties we face in life, some larger than others. It’s super easy to let fear and negative thoughts bring us down and if we give them enough voice and attention, we start to believe them and suddenly the color of life starts to blend into the colors of these thoughts. There is another voice that is always present and speaks truth. It can be very difficult to hear sometimes. As I swim here I imagine myself swimming into that voice and actively choosing to listen to it over the negativity. I admit I am not always able to do this. Today I seem to be able to do it and the voice shines hope over the threatening gloom in my life.
I am pretty far into the swim and these clouds are not budging. I let go of any expectation that the sun will arrive before I leave here. I do know that the sun will come. And when it does, it will be good. Heck, it’s pretty good right now.
I finish up and get to the shower and a mom is trying to wrestle her young daughter away from the button that turns on the water. I can tell that her patience is running thin and I totally empathize with her. My son is the same way with that button. It is a fascinating button. It’s not often that you can press a button in some random location and water comes gushing out AND it’s ok for that water to be gushing out. It’s like joy at your fingertips. It might take more than words to get my son to separate himself from said button. This little girl does pretty good.
I drive home up Selva through the cloud cover and just about the time I am cresting Blue Lantern, the sun shines.
