Swirling
It’s an afternoon swim today. I can hardly remember the last time I swam after noon, but it just works out that way today. I was up late last night with my son and had to be in Costa Mesa at 8:30 this morning so a morning swim, let alone a morning workout simply was not in the cards. I did have a few spare hours between the Costa Mesa outing and a date with my oldest son so that’s when I swam.
It was pretty great. I definitely prefer swimming in the morning for several reasons: calmer water, better light for photos, getting the workout out of the way. However I love getting to the beach in the middle of a warm afternoon and being refreshed by the cool water. The water was definitely bumpy but not terrible. The buoy temps have been down a bit yesterday and today but the reality in the water was mostly pleasant yesterday and I expect it to be the same today. It was. The lifeguard station says 61 but no way was it 61. It was very comfortable.
The beach parking lot and the shore are much more crowded but who cares? The majority of my time is going to be spent in the water past the surf and I will be the only one out there. The only one for miles and miles of beautiful serene coastline.
I walk onto the water and I am about to take my obligatory photo of the horizon when a woman with one of those bathing suits with no but covering walks in front of me and I just don’t feel right about capturing that photo. This is a family blog after all. So I tilt a bit away and manage to take a shot sans ass.
I dive under a couple breaking crumbly waves and then I am past the white water and it feels just great. My mind is swirling with all sorts of thoughts but I am happy that these thoughts can share space with the water to dilute their impact. Everything seems to be tumbling about my face. It is blue and splashy everywhere. The water is so refreshing on this warm late Spring day. It’s just great to be out here and it feels great to move my body and indulge in some wholesome effort.
About two thirds into the swim I Stop and see a large fancy boat motoring close by. I wave to the driver and they wave back. Then I look towards shore and notice I am way out here far from shore. How did this happen. I sharply adjust trajectory to veer inland and by the time I reach my final turn around point, I am much closer to shore.
I pause here just before making the final haul to my finishing spot. I look around me and just soak in this solitude. I focus on the million little wakes popping up all around me. I listen to the sounds of the wind and waves and boats. I look to the shore and watch the crowd buzzing about in near, but not absolute, silence. It’s nice. It’s super nice. I breathe in this feeling. I look out at the hills east of the immediate bluff and take stock of all of my problems that exist out there and how it feels so far away from where I am now and isn’t that so very nice. There is just water here and no one but me cares about much anything else in the immediate vicinity here. All of my worries, at least for now, feel entirely irrelevant.
