A Special Place

"If You Could Be Anywhere" is the theme of the challenge at Inspiration Avenue.  Here's my entry:

The swell of the cicadas is the harbinger the end of summer.  If I didn’t before, I feel an urgency to go to my beloved lake.  Not just “the lake,” but “my beloved lake.”  This water has a particular appeal for me. It is a signature green – a color that I welcome as it sticks to my swimsuit. Here and there a flurry of fish, a surprise of a snail shell underfoot.  The water seems to hold the magic of birth, rebirth, healing, and all sorts of other special powers.  Even today as I swim, the water feels like a caress, an embrace, holding me up and propelling me on.

There is a moment today at the end of my swim where I float on my back, coming as close as I can to stillness.  Above me, the sky is blue and white.  Beneath me, the water supports me with invisible hands.  With my ears submerged, I hear the song of the water.  In that moment, all is perfect.  Nothing is missing.  I am one with the lake, one with the sky.  “This is what it feels like, before the beginning, and after the end.”  I know this without thinking it – a moment of absorption in all that was, all that is, and all that will be.

As soon as I become aware of this thought, the moment passes.  My feet touch the sand underneath as I stand up.  Looking back at the beach, I see the people who came before me – translucent, moving in fast-forward through my memories.  There, walking down the path, is my grandmother in her bright orange robe with her crocheted bag full of treats for her grandchildren. Sitting back towards the fence, my grandfather reads his paper and then folds it away to talk to his friends.  There are the tables of people playing bridge, my dad doing dips on the old ladders, my mother running after my sister and brother as they toddle down the dock, my daughters passing their swim tests for the very first time.  So many memories.  So many imprints in this place we call Pine Lake.

Someday, perhaps my daughters will see a ripple in the water, and see an imprint of me, swimming back and forth in “my beloved lake.”  I hope so.  If I have a choice, this will be my heaven.  In the outside world, the shares of Facebook crumble; miners are shot in South Africa; Syria disintegrates. But here, the water is calm and still, and basketball always begins at 1:30 on Saturdays.

Linking up to my favorite haunts - Artists in Blogland, Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day, Out of the Journal, and Art Journal Every Day at Balzer Designs. Please check out all the amazing artists who link up at these sites. 

The Diva's challenge this week was to draw your own string with your eyes closed.  I tried it, and after I finished it and turned it this way and that, it reminded me of a snake.  So I gave it a pomegranate to bite into!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.