Swimming Lessons

"Happy 100th Magpie Tess!"

Mag # 100

We are born of water then struggle the abyss onto dry land.

We cry out for breath and comfort reaching for warmer hands.

With time our struggles move forward and seem to learn to grow,

like giant obscure statues rising from the stone.

We wrestle with life's waters, like we never learned to swim.

Grasping at the future's edge forgetting where we've been.

It is a journey full of waves in an ever flowing tide.

a souls lesson in strokes and breathing that takes a lifetime.

When I was growing up I did not learn how to swim until I was 17 years old.  At one time when I was about 12 my father had me take swimming lessons at a local YMCA.  It was quite difficult because I had developed a great fear of the water, and everything they tried to show me and get me to do was a major undertaking.  My fear prevented me from learning at that time.  It was a struggle that followed with me until I had the determination later to finally take my feet off the bottom and submerge my head and learn to hold my breath.

Life in general can be like this.  We have so much to learn, and sometimes it can be frightening, and we struggle with the process, like a drowning man in the ocean.  It only makes learning more difficult, but we can still learn, it just takes a little longer.