The fog is thick in San Francisco this morning. It has been a cold, wet and windy spring – just a tad warmer than winter was – sometimes. I am getting ready to go swim in the bay and I have that giddy feeling I used to get as a girl when we would go to the beach and the whole ocean beckoned me in. It was the freest I ever was as a child. I spent my life with a bathing suit packed and at the ready in the off chance I could dip into a river, lake or the sea. I didn’t always swim in the bay. It never really occurred to me that I could. I always headed to Maine every summer (still do) for the hot sun and my daily swimming obsession. My exercise and happy place in the bay area had mostly been hiking until my knees blew out and I was blindsided by my menopausal years, a narcissistic mother to care for 24/7, lots of dead family members and a rocky marriage and two children to raise. My life became fraught; overrun with drama and trauma and I lost sight of myself. I had forgotten how to play and frolic and be free in nature. Bot a happy time. Then I got a coupla new knees, stopped drinking lost weight, separated from the husband and a friend brought me to Aquatic Park for a bay swim and that was it!!! I was myself again, living in my own skin. Goddesses, I just love being lost in the brine of the bay. Just a head and a yellow bubble for my cell phone and car keys floating along beside Angel Island, Alcatraz, the Tall Ships, The Maritime Museum, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharf, Sea Gulls, Great Blue Herons, Pelicans and Cormorants flying and diving and the occasional Harbor Seal and Sea Lion swimming by. I can’t stop smiling while I am bobbing along in the salty water. I am weightless and my body feels youthful and agile. My 61-year-old cricks and cracks and dull aches seep out of my bones and muscles and blend with the bay water.
I am joyful and serene. I remembered who I am.
Deep Dive Saturday Writing Prompt ~ What is something you did as a kid that made you happy? Describe it in detail so you can remember and live it again. Do you still do it? If not, why not?