Effort and Influence
Happy Monday. The run of beautiful days continue. It’s sunny and 64 degrees outside when I leave my apartment about 10:00. Once I get a good view of the western horizon coming down Selva, it looks like the horizon has grown ill. There is a brown strip of haze resting on the water. I admit I have not been paying close attention to the news lately, but this looks like fire activity.
From the parking lot, the water looks beautiful. As I walk down the stairs I do my usual cold water ruminations. I just can’t get my head around the fact that I can get into that water and not freeze to death or maybe not die but instead writhe in some kind of icy hell state. However, I know this is not the case. I would even bet my life on the fact that things will be just fine and likely much more than fine. Still that just can’t stop the onslaught of thoughts that claim otherwise. All I can do is watch this nonsense move about in my mind. It makes me wonder what other areas of my life do I do this same thing but instead believe and obey the thoughts.
I get to the beach and it is predictably beautiful. Surf conditions are still lake-like similar to yesterday. That’s fine with me. As I walk through the shallows, I see a leopard shark swimming on the floor. I think they look so cool. I start to swim and I must say it does feel cool but it’s certainly no icy hell. I do just fine. No writhing here.
I swim north towards Salt Creek. The water definitely feels colder today than yesterday. The local air temperature is supposed to reach 71 today so hopefully that will help but these cold nights are the primary culprit here I think. Music again fills my head like it has for the last couple swims. I really like this. There are still dream like thoughts and images that race across my internal screen but it’s a nice bonus to have musical accompaniment. I knew I was going to like my new digital piano but I didn’t anticipate this side effect. I try not to voluntarily influence the notes that I hear but let them just play out organically. This lasts over the entire swim.
As I proceed further north past the Ritz, I periodically stop to look back south. The sky seems to be getting progressively more hazy and I imagine it’s from smoke. I know there is an air quality alert and I just assume it’s all fire related. The northern view is not so bad. Regardless, it is a beautiful swim. I can see the ocean floor nearly the whole time due to decent visibility. It surprises me how shallow the water actually is here. It’s still much deeper than I am tall but when you can’t see the bottom I always feel like it’s 50 feet deep even though I know it’s not.
I reach the Monarch Bay Beach Club and I stop to take in the view. There is a garbage truck making a whole bunch of noise near the club. So much so that the seagull sitting contently just about 20 feet offshore of me takes off and flies away. I guess I’m leaving too. I start to head back south.
The return trip seems to go faster than the trip out. The current doesn’t feel strong and I’m only basing this observation on my own subjective perception. So who knows. I’m just enjoying the music here. How does this happen? How does that music play so clearly with seemingly no effort or influence on my part? Of course I know that effort and influence are present but they exist just beneath my perception. It makes me wonder from what else in my life can I withhold effort and influence and just watch it fly like a bird hovering over this water.
