Like a Good Dream
It’s a good day here in Dana Point - like most. It’s overcast skies but I feel sunny on the inside today. I finish up a couple early meetings and I’m out the door by 7:00. No time to fool around today. I have to be back by 9:00 to respond to a chat based meeting. I already have my response all drafted, but I have to be here promptly at 9:00 so that I can highlight my prepared text, copy it, paste it into the chat window and hit send. No. I can’t “schedule” it because the meeting moderator has to prompt me first. Anyways, I know from lots of experience that if I stay focused (not always easy), I will be back from my swim, assuming I swim my southern route, in just a couple minutes under two hours.
I park and everything is peaceful and beautiful. I have to stop in the bathroom before heading down the stairs. Uh oh, this is already taking me off track. I can do this. I can’t NOT do this (using the restroom), otherwise we will have bigger problems. Out of respect for the reader, I will not elaborate further on what those problems might entail.
I head down the stairs and as I am approaching the shore, a good sized set of waves rolls in. The water’s surface is smooth and the waves break cleanly down the beach. It all looks serenely wonderful. The tide is low and there are lots of exposed inshore rocks - very pretty. When my feet touch the water, I can immediately tell it is warmer than my swim on Monday. It feels cool but pleasant.
Soon I am swimming out past the surf and then I veer left towards the southern end of the beach. The water does indeed feel good. I did not swim yesterday but the buoys said 63 degrees which is a little chilly. It was back up to 66 this morning, but this feels warmer than 66. It feels closer to 68. It’s not the 71 I had last Friday but it’s super nice.
My thoughts are filled with premonitions of good things to come. These thoughts keep me warm inside - particularly in my core. All up and down the beach I watch these thoughts like a good dream move like kelp in an unseen current back and forth across the under surface of the ocean.
The whole swim feels great. On the north bound stretch, a flock of pelicans pass just above me and I stop and race to grab my camera and by the time I aim and press the button, they are pretty far ahead of me. By the time I reach the northernmost end of the swim near the bathrooms, the first of the jr. lifeguard canopies has been erected. Just before swimming to shore, I can see a couple more and there are kids making the trek down the beach with their packed lunches and fins in tow.
Just before the end of the swim a set of waves comes and I can see one about to break just behind me. I loosen and relax my body and the water crashes down on top of me and I let it shake me like a rag doll in this small space between the sandy bottom and the surface of the white water.
As I head up the stairs, a guy asks me, “is it still cold?” I happily report that it is quite nice and he responds with relief. I drive home, enter my apartment, login to my laptop and just as I do, that text comes prompting me to give my meeting update. Ahhh perfect timing.
