Sunday, January 15, 2012

Swimming Lessons





"Happy 100th Magpie Tess!"


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.


26 comments:

  1. ..a read from here makes me feel good inside and out.. "wrestle with life's waters... a journey full of waves.." perhaps are my favourite lines... excellent reflection!!!(:

    ~Kelvin

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  2. I agree with Kelvin, but I also like the line, We wrestle with life's waters like we never leaned to swim'! So true!

    ....but by the grace of God!

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  3. We have to learn to move with the waves, not to fight them. Some fine lines and lessons in this poem, Carrie.

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  4. I told my children from the time they were babies that water is our friend... and it is our foe. We must learn to respect that. They learned to swim before they entered kindergarten. I'm SO glad you found the courage to learn how. I know it's harder the older one gets.

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  5. you are right...takes a lifetime
    wonderful magpie

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  6. Best to go with the flow, where life is concerned, instead of swimming against the current!

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  7. oh believe me, i had so many "swimming lessons" in my life...and i'm still a master in struggling and drowning...it truly takes a lifetime..

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  8. so much to be said of water and what we can learn from it...but we must see it as a friend to truly learn from it...

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  9. I spent four years in the Navy and couldn't swim. Good thing I never fell overboard.

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  10. ...like we never learned to swim...I love that...

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  11. So true. We all have to learn to wrestle with life's waters. And it ain't easy.

    =)

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  12. I think your poem has an interesting perspective and I like the way the words fit together like a giant tide rising up and then receding.... a tidal rhythm. Very cool. Thank you for sharing.

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  13. positive and encouraging words for those struggles in llife

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  14. Loved how you compared things to life! My sister and I did take swimming lesson when we were little....also at the Y, but it was an outdoor pool and the lessons were at 7:00 am....it was darn cold, so we learned how to swim very quickly..;) Congrats on learning yourself! :)

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  15. Carrie, it has taken me the better part of 70 years ... a lesson to be learned here.

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  16. Hi Carrie,
    The human body is like...what? 90% water? Beautiful poem! It's never too late to learn how to swim.

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  17. We swim fine and then we fight to pull our heads above the water...such wisdom in your work...It is a journey full of waves in an ever flowing tide. a souls lesson in strokes and breathing that takes a lifetime. Beautiful

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  18. i hear you about learning sometimes taking longer than expected. that i've learned too. and i'm grateful this lifetime can be a long enough for essentially many stages, so we can benefit from sticking with something until we progress.

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  19. An interesting post, I liked some of the lines-a souls lesson in each stroke- lovely.
    I too did not learn to swim until I was old-27, I am ambiguous about the water still, some times I'll swim, sometimes I won't.

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  20. Ohh How to swim freely? It takes a long time.

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  21. Thanks for visiting!
    I can identify with your fear of water-I am a water baby- Yet I know its potential dangers. I have great respect for our 4 main elements.

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  22. I loved your words, the struggle was so well captured in your imagery~
    I can so relate I have a struggle to face. I have to walk through a door of the past, that was not pleasant.
    Fear, makes me want to run...but I can not! Thanks Carrie for so capturing this feeling, in such a beautiful way~ (((Hugs)))
    I'm so glad you learned and faced your fear!

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  23. So poignantly put! I'm having to take my neice for swimming sessions as my sister is terrified of water. The little one's confident now, almost there, just trying to get her mum (at 39) to conquer her fear!

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  24. I love how you wrote this Carrie....and I did the same as you...didn't learn to swim until my late teens. Now I love the water but back then so chicken hearted. Funny that once we manage to come through something it seems so easy we wonder what the big deal was really all about. I also love your header pic. Awesome.

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  25. One can't help but be immersed in the positivity that flows through this. ;-)

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  26. It is indeed a journey... and everyone's timing is a bit different. You write with an eye toward the hopeful.

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"Our best thoughts come from others." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson