T
here are two vastly different narratives recounted about water. One set takes place in ancient Egypt, land fed by the Nile. It tells of lovers swimming to meet in secret, children diving for fun on a hot afternoon, fishermen braving crocodiles to free their nets. The other collection takes place in the kingdom of Sumer, the land between two life-giving rivers — the Tigris and the Euphrates. Here, water represents death and violence, heroes drown while gasping for breath, and the ocean is only crossable by the gods.
I remember my first attempts to swim as a child. Pummeled by pounding surf, I inhaled saline, my body tumbling like desert weed until I skinned my knees on cut glass on a rough beach. It would take many, many years before I attempted to learn how to swim again. On the cusp of adulthood, I was finally forced to take lessons at a pool, discovering for the first time my body’s ability to float naturally on its back, my head tilted until my hairline felt the kiss of chlorinated water.
In the ocean safety and danger are porous states. Entangled in the waves, I try to recall the skills of my fish ancestors even as my awkward limbs flail in the fluctuating current. I pop up my face, take an elongated breath, hold. I lever forward, I glide. I repeat, until my brain stops concentrating on the steps and relaxes. I notice the whirl of the tide, hear the laughter of splashing children, sniff the charring of fish somewhere along the sands, taste the brine of life. Each scene is a panel in an endlessly shifting tapestry. I feel myself a speck in this vast fluidity. Swimming back to shore, I marvel at how effortlessly the water supports my weight, but cannot be held by me even as it enters through my skin, becomes a part of me.
The smell of the pool is not the aroma of the ocean. Its color is distinct too. There is an assured monotony to the marked out lanes, a narrowing focus in reaching one end to the other, a sterility permeating through the disinfected waters. Swimming here is a mindless activity akin to showering. Within the rectangular concrete limits the brain flits from thought to thought, blossoms ingenious whimsical ideas. Like everything human made, there is the illusion of safety inside a pool, the mirage that one might subjugate the power of water.
Being in the ocean strips all of that deception. Regardless of mastering all the strokes, the use of flotation devices, the presence of lifeguards, swimming in open water is an act of abandonment. It requires me to fully embrace uncertainty and respect water’s dominance over my physical capabilities. Each time I fail spectacularly. It’s not normal, jumping into the unknown, arms open wide, bracing for the impact. Still, there is something about riding those waves, floating above that depth, watching their ever-evolving variations: I can’t get enough.
Swimming for me is a testing of boundaries. I’m always initially reluctant to enter the water. As I push through my tentacled fears — how far from land can I venture? What’s the largest wave I can handle? How long can I stay underwater? — I feel connected. I imagine all the creatures in all the bodies of water churning their bodies through the currents, floating together as the waves lift us up.
TRAVEL NOTE:
Diana Nyad ruminates on perseverance, learning from failure, and swimming as a community activity in her memoir “Find A Way,” recounting her successful journey from Cuba to Florida. Available at your local library or bookstore.
If you would like to listen to the audio version of this, check it out here.
I would love to know about your swimming experiences either local or during travel in the comments. Where is your favorite place to swim? Do you prefer open water or pool? Do you have a favorite swim style: backstroke, butterfly, etc.?
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Love how you wrote about the bigness of the ocean and how it challenges our perceptions of physical dominance. I admire those who rise to the challenge by snorkeling, surfing, etc. As for me, I’m happy to wander along the shore, eating ice cream.
Haha…eating ice cream while wandering along the shore sounds positively marvelous and I might just follow your example next time I’m near the ocean.
A wonderful post … great descriptive writing! 🙂
Thank you! So happy you enjoyed it. 🥰 Have a lovely rest of your summer!
I was brought up by the sea in West Africa. To me, the sea was the maximum joy. Then the “sea” took a loved one… I’ve never been able to fully recover my relationship with the sea… But it’s all right. Time heals. (Almost) everything…
All well?
My condolences. The sea can be both hugely romantic and deeply scary. Thank you for reaching out. All’s well in my neck of the woods. Hope the same for you.
Thank you… (Nothing one can do, except care for the living…)
Glad you’re all right. 🙏🏻
I felt like I was in the water! I learned to swim as a child and living on the coast, I’ve often swum in indoor pools, the sea and an outdoor pool like the one in your photo, so this brought back many memories.
Happy to hear! Thanks for sharing a bit of your swim 🏊♀️ history with me!
Oh your descriptions had me with you in the water, feeling the waves, but I’m not as brave as you. I don’t go out far even though I learned to swim, in a pool, as a child. Just far enough to ride the boogie board in. In the tropics I’m better where the water is really warm. That’s when I truly relax into the soothing healing that water brings.
Alison
Tropical 🌴 waters 🌊 is where I live my best swim life too! The clear views and wonderful colors get me. 💙
OH, good I can comment. When I came here originally, WP said I needed to subscribe, and since I am, I was confused. I couldn’t even see the post, etc, but I’m commenting through WP’s site, not yours, so maybe that’s the difference.
Are those your sketches? Because I like them!
Glad that technical kerfuffle worked out for you. Yes! Those are my sketches. 😌 Glad you like them! I get nervous posting travel drawings.
You introduce a way to think about water in a way I’ve never thought about but have always felt. There is the joy/love of swimming with friends and growing up always near and playing in rivers/lakes/seas as well as the more sterile environment of a swimming pool ~ but what has always held my excitement is your beautifully written narrative about the kingdom of Sumer… “… water represents death and violence, heroes drown while gasping for breath, and the ocean is only crossable by the gods.” This gets the blood pumping, along with feelings of insecurity. With all of its meditative power, water is something to be respected.
When in the ocean, diving beneath the waves, feeling the tug of currents, the taste of salt, and the weight of water, it is hard to describe such a feeling. Something to be experienced. Once on a deep dive, I lay parallel to the bottom and thought of the immense weight of the water, how insignificant I was in this vast ocean, and along with my amazement was this twinge of fear, knowing how powerless I was… yet, such a beautiful feeling. Your writing and post remind me of this and how taking a plunge remains one of the best expressions of freedom I can have.
Thank you for your lovely reflections on swimming and experiencing the water. It truly is an indescribable feeling and you said it best as “something to be experienced.”
Porousness, boundaries, abandonment, connection – I like the way you move from idea to idea, always bringing things back home with sensual descriptions. Water and land are such different experiences….here’s to many more explorations, my friend!
Thank you! “Water and land are such different experiences”: so true! And I love the magic of going in between them.
What a fascinating meditation on water and swimming. I wish I could swim in the ocean more often (a healthy regard for sharks, stingrays, and other potentially dangerous creatures notwithstanding), but given that I live in a landlocked state (Colorado), a swimming pool will need to suffice. And mindless as it might be, I find that swimming laps help me enter a meditative state which adds a healthful mental aspect to the physical workout.
Thank you! I so agree about the state of mind for pool swimming…a bit like being in the shower: so many of my best ideas blossom in the pool! Thanks for stopping by to share your swim experience and enjoy your meditative laps!
I was born on a Pacific Port right at the Tropic of Cancer in Mexico, I do not remember when I first learned to float on the water, before I learned to swim, at a very young age, over here now in Baja California, retired about 70 miles south of San Diego in Ensenada.
The weather it’s too cold, and since arrived for the first time here when I was 18 years of age, my enthusiasm for snorkeling practically come to an end, water temperature it’s a killer for water sports.
You get hipothermia before you can spent 20 minutes on the water!
Right now already on April, and at night we got temperatures of 9C, not the kind of weather that incline you to be enjoying a swim at the Ocean!🥶
There’s nothing like being able to float and snorkel in clear, warm, tropical waters. 😆 I wouldn’t want to be enjoying a swim in 9C either!
Hi BT, Love your compelling stories about swimming. I am not a great swimmer and have almost drowned twice when I was younger — once in a pool and once in the ocean when pulled out by an undertow. As an adult, a friend gave me formal lessons in his condo pool. It helped, but my biggest problem has always been breathing properly! It’s why I find swimming so exhausting when others say it’s relaxing. Despite my struggles with it, I do enjoy the water, both in open waters and in a pool.
Like you , I have a strong respect for water even though I don’t have access to swim often. Hope all’s well with you!
e
I hear you! Getting a breathing rhythm that works for me during swimming is my biggest challenge too! Thanks for sharing your swimming stories with me and I hope this finds you safe and well.
I have lived 5 minutes from the beach all of my life but I am a poor swimmer and I really don’t like it! As kids we went to the beach every weekend in summer, but around the age of 16 my parents built a house with a pool and we barely went to the beach after. I much prefer a pool – while the white sandy beaches of western Australia are beautiful when you get sand in your cracks it isn’t fun! lol.
😅 That sand does get everywhere! It’s amazing! And for weeks after visiting the beach I find little granules on my skin. Enjoy your pool!
What a lyrical way to write about swimming, Atreyee. I definitely don’t share your enthusiasm for it, and although I can swim relatively well, I simply don’t like it. Learning how to swim was the same as learning how to ride a bicycle – something one simply had to learn as a part of the process of growing up. Unless it is above 40C, I won’t even think of getting into any body of water, and then it is simply with the intention to cool off, which I have to concede I then quite enjoy. Mostly just floating on my back is my preference, but I hardly ever linger for very long. Sitting with my legs dangling in the water, or walking on a beach with the waves washing over my feet is sort of where my enjoyable interaction with water ends.
Ah, floating on my back is one of my favorite things to do! So calming. Especially in a warm cove. Thanks for sharing your swimming preferences with me! Hope you get to enjoy dangling your legs in some warm water soon.
I grew up near the ocean but my parents had me learn to swim in a lake before allowing me to attempt the wave action. Mostly I played in the sand and didn’t start swimming in the ocean until I was 12 or 13.
Most recently I went swimming while visiting Dominican Republic in November. That was the first time for ocean swimming in more than three years and my age showed. I was very prone to losing my balance in the surf and at one point was knocked over. In swimming as in life, it’s important to be realistic about your capabilities. Interesting, thought-provoking post. Cheers.
“In swimming as in life, it’s important to be realistic about your capabilities.” –> how true! Another lesson learned from being in the waters. Thanks so much for offering your own swim history. Hope this finds you safe and well.
I am well, thanks. 😊
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