-- Anais Nin
I've been watching Caroline learn to swim this summer. She has been fearless! She swims in a thirteen foot deep pool, alongside a whole host of kids and even some college swimmers. She jumps in and with a breathtaking fearlessness she goes for it. She leaves nothing back. She swims without grace, without expertise, without beauty but she swims...as if willing the water to stop her. She thrashes and splashes and somehow makes it out to her swim coach. When she needs a breath she pops her head straight up, gulps that oxygen and then back to the thrashing she goes. The other day, she took a running start and dove into the pool! Incredible to watch and can you imagine doing it? In her mind, she's a swimmer and that is the secret. She doesn't know she can't. She isn't pausing and thinking about it. She's not noticing the depth. She believes she can and so she can.
Watching this fearlessness each day of the summer has made me look a little closer at my own life. When was the last time I was fearless? When have I attacked something with such passion and zeal that I couldn't possibly stop halfway? When did I go for it and not look back? I have been out of my comfort zone for sure but I have to admit that I haven't been thrashing and splashing in new waters for quite sometime.
So...as I begin to look at my daily life without one of my favorite people in it, I'm going to be thinking of Caroline. I'm going to have to splash and thrash and not notice the depth. I'm going to have to go for it and embrace something new. I'm going to have to expand my world and not shrink it. I have a great example to follow...my little fish! If she can swim, so can I.
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