Swimming in Late October
From Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the thermometer says it's forty one degrees Farenheit at noon:In the mornings now I am still swimming in Lake Harriet. It is becoming a little more frightening in a certain teenage kind of way, a way that makes me feel alive and sort of insane.
I put on my long wetsuit in the basement. Later at the beach, still sitting in the car, I pull on my salamander gloves. I also have on neoprene booties. I am covered from neck to toe. I usually have my doubts right before I get out of the car. Then I just step out, being careful not to make eye contact with any of the walkers, runners or bicyclists who might be passing on the paths. I feel like if I make eye contact it will be too much. They might smile at me, sort of impressed, which would then make me feel like I was going in the water for THEM. Or they might ignore me or look away, which might make me feel like I really am insane. Better to pretend I don't see them and stay in my little world.
Then I do it. Every single day I just walk into the water and do it. Because I haven't missed a day it makes it easier. I look down to see the line on the sand underwater where the swimming area begins. As if it matters that I should stay in the swimming area on October 26! Then I lean forward into the lake and start to do the breast stroke. It is easy to begin, and because of the wetsuit I actually do not get that cold. I get sort of buzzed from neck to toe with the sensation of cold hitting warm neoprene and then manifesting itself on my skin. Of course my skin turns pink. Nowadays I don't put my head under water until the last lap. It produces such an icecream headache that I don't think it's probably that good for me. But on that last lap I do take a deep breath and plunge under and this is the true brain floss moment: I feel GREAT!! I come up, smiling and spouting like a whale. Then I start toward shore.
When I am thigh deep in the water, I do water walking for two lengths of the beach. Maybe it's just me, but it feels like I go slower now. It feels like I am walking in moloasses. This has GOT to be good for my hips. For a moment I am thinking about all kinds of random things: I am thinking about hypothermia and whether I would even know if I have it. I am thinking about my friend Ric and the way he must have felt when he was sure that his cancer was going to take his life. I am thinking about my daughter Nora's project on colonial school houses and I suddenly realize that I double booked myself tomorrow for an interview at the same moment that I have an orthodontist appointment. The essentials of my little life are right in front of me. The big picture is here too: Canada geese flying in a V formation above me, the trees on the distant shore with only a few brown leaves left on them, the big open sky.
Now it is time to scramble to shore, dry my face with my towel, do a few deep knee bends. I CRANK the classical music, the heat, and the engine in the car, all at once, and scram back home to the hot shower and to a renewed interest in my life.
--Nanci Olesen is the host and producer of http://www.mombo.org, a radio resource for moms. "MOMbo broadcasts the everyday truth about motherhood (in order to save the world)." nanci@mombo.org
posted by Nanci Olesen @ 12:25 PM
3 Comments:
Nanci,
One of the things I love most about your work -- as someone who has followed you and your amazing show -- is that I can HEAR you when I read your words. I can HEAR your cadence, your pauses, your inflection... your bizarre northie accent. ;) I'm still with you, as though I was turning you up on the radio and "shushing" those around me to hear the meaty bits. Thanks so much for lending your voice to the blog. I love your stories.
Kim
I agree with Kim! I can hear your soothing MOMbo voice speaking to me as I read your posts!
isn't it funny, and neat, that we look at nature and see "the big picture"?
those geese are as little as we are, and yet, things that don't have the human stamp on them just ring out the cosmos. i'm bowled over.
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