Great Summer Days

These great summer days just keep coming. Today is the 8th day in a row that I have swam. Who knows when this will stop. Tomorrow?…October? It’s just too early to tell. We are in the middle of a heat wave here. When you live a mile from the water, these heat wave’s really are not so bad and they make the beach this sort of celestial oasis. Look, I don’t have time to be swimming, editing photos and writing these words. But then again, do I have time NOT to? I am compelled to do this and I love it and I just wish I had more time for other things.

I left a little after 10:15 and the temperature probably was not that far under 80 degrees. The sky is nearly clear. There is just a little haze here and there. It was clear at dawn this morning. That has not happened for a while. It was then that I figured a swim would be on the day’s agenda.

The parking lot has a few more cars than normal - of course. I get down to the beach and it takes about 100 milliseconds to adapt to the water - probably less than that. Also the water is clear. I can see the ocean floor through most of the swim and the kelp looks more sharp and clear than it normally does. It’s funny when I can see the bottom out here, I realize that this water really isn’t as deep as I think it is. Most days, the water might as well be 1000 feet deep because all I can see is a dark void beneath me.

Now for something a little gross. There is this sort of muck spread thin over the water today. I have actually noticed this the last couple of swims. It’s not uncommon to see muck on the water. Yeah, it’s gross but it is often isolated to well defined areas but these last few days it has been like a film covering most of the surface across the beach. I easily put up with this and just try to pretend it is not there. I am super talented at pretending things are not there. When I was 16, I came home crazy drunk once and my mother was at my door and I tried to pretend she wasn’t there. Unfortunately, that did not work out so well.

Most swim days, I shower off and rinse at the upper bathrooms and skip a “real” shower. That has worked for me for about a year unless others are just being extra nice not to say anything to me. Of course it helps when you live alone and work from home. Anyways, today let’s just say that I took advantage of my shower and bodily cleansing products. Your welcome.

My body felt a little extra tired today. Not sure tired is the right word. I had lots of energy but I felt a bit strained. I credit this with swimming 8 days in a row. I usually mix in running and elliptical which balances things out more but this week I have been concentrating on all the same muscles. My mind is actually pretty settled today. Yesterday’s lullaby has faded and today I am focusing on identifying with my higher self. I am convinced that we all have far more power that we think we have and it is our beliefs that allow us to access that power. We believe the negativity and criticism we feed ourselves and become what we eat. I don’t want to live that way. Not anymore I don’t. I don’t think I have to. We walk in a self manufactured illusion than dampens our agency.

So I swim here and find myself continually trying to align myself with light. We can all choose the story we write for ourselves. This doesn’t mean we always choose the events that come into our lives though I know there are some who would argue otherwise and I see there point. I am certain we choose how we respond to these events and our response can change the chemistry of our interactions. I am a novice here and probably always will be but I hope to add some competency to my life skills and I am finding that focusing on a good story and seeing myself aligned with its narrative seems to be helpful.

Anyways this swim was beautiful. The water was so smooth and not totally ruined by the muck. In fact I did manage to find several spots that seemed to be muck free. When I got back to my car and had a look at the pictures, I was genuinely surprised at how good they looked. We will see if that remains to be the case when I edit them later. Sometimes I am sort of high after the swim and the pictures look AMAZING and then not as great later on in the day. Still, no mater how the pics come out, I can say confidently that it looked great out there!

Just an update: now that I have gone through them all again, I have to say they are pretty great.