Found My Achilles Heal

I’m off to the beach a little after 9:00 this morning. It’s partly cloudy skies out, but a fair amount of blue sky about. As I head down Golden Lantern just past the high school, I can see a foggyish hazy mist over the water beyond the harbor. Then after cresting Blue Lantern on Selva, I can see the western view and from here I can see all the way out to the edge of the horizon. However, there is no sign of Catalina.

I’ve been debating what direction to swim today and by the time I reach the parking lot, it is clear that it is brighter to the north than the south and so that settles it. I’ll be swimming north today.

I get out of the car from my favorite parking space. The sun feels good on my skin and the water looks pretty smooth as I descend the stairs. Not a lot happening in the surf department but it sure is beautiful. It’s another one of those days where I have had to drag myself to the beach. The idea of getting into not warm water just does not seem at all appealing. However I come holding the faith that this is an illusion. I know from experience that the water will give me exactly what I need. Even now as I walk down the stairs, I both wonder how on earth could this be good and also know it will be more than good. That’s right. We can think more than one thought at the same time and those thoughts do not need to agree. Both deserve their own voice but both do not need to occupy the driver’s seat. I choose that later voice to take the lead and I follow it all the way to the water.

It’s high tide but not a very high one. The water feels just a touch warmer on my feet than I remember from Tuesday. I very much question the accuracy of this memory.

I get in the water. A wave approaches and I use this as an opportunity to dive beneath it and attain full immersion. Unfortunately as I do, I strain my left Achilles and it cries out in pain and I only hope the damage is minimal. I have not ran in two weeks and it is still very much not OK. I have definitely found my Achilles heal and it is in fact my Achilles heal! The actual act of swimming does not bother it at all but I find that I have to be very careful walking through the surf and on very uneven sand.

Well I am fully horizontal now and heading north. I gradually gain distance from the beach. I enjoy this stretch just short of the lifeguard tower as I swim in relatively shallow water over large rocks that have sea grass growing from them like thick green hair that waves back and forth in the current. There is an intimacy here with these rocks. I have swam over them so many times and I can sit here now and imagine every jagged crevice. They sit like islands on a sea of white sand - a vast archipelago.

I cross the lifeguard tower. There are a couple of police SUVs parked and I wonder what that’s all about. I’ll probably never know. I could create a bunch of crazy stories in my head but I am distracted by the water and sky and that point off in the distance between here and Three Arch Bay. I’ve been to that point before on a few occasions; so I know that right now as I swim here just how beautiful it is right there. All up and down the coast from here to Alaska there are a countless number of such points each stunningly beautiful in their own unique way and they are stunningly beautiful right now, forever, and always.

The swim goes on and on like this. My eyes constantly intersecting with beauty. There is so much suffering in this world but it does not appear to be here.