Treading Water

This is the pool in my subdivision where I do my "treading"

I am down in Georgia this week, returning for to Milwaukee on July 4 for my last few weeks of work. Then I will be down here for good! Whew!



Every evening since I've been here I have gone to the pool. It is a large saltwater pool and in the early evening hours not crowded at all. The water is warm, but refreshing. I realize just how out of shape I am! I was always a strong swimmer, but I found myself huffing and puffing after 10 strokes!



I was raised on water, or so it seems. My parents always rented cottages "up north" in Wisconsin. I remember taking swimming lessons at a local high school when I was young, but it was my father who really taught me (and my sisters) how to swim. My mom wasn't much of a water gal, but my dad just loved swimming and water activities. He learned to water ski at age 60! As kids my friend, Bethy and I spent hours in her small swimming pool located in her backyard and both our parents took us to local lakes for swimming and picnics. The hours Bethy and I spent in the water when we were young! It is amazing we didn't grow fins (as my mother said we would)! My parents eventually purchased lake property in northern Wisconsin, built a house and retired there. Oh - the fun my family had at that lake house!


One of my favorite things to do in the water is to tread water. When I was younger I really could do it for hours. Basically staying in one place, arms and legs moving, watching the clouds, the shoreline, the birds and insects, I just loved it.

So now, in a swimming pool in Georgia, I find myself in the deepest area of the pool (5 feet) treading water. While I still try to do laps - and I am noticing a difference in my stamina every day - I realize that treading water probably gives me the same amount of exercise - all my body parts are moving and I can enjoy both the people and nature all around me.


Last evening, alone in the pool except for one other lone swimmer, I was enjoying the big, puffy white clouds when it occurred to me that not only was I treading water in the pool, but in real life, too. Caught between still working full time and retirement in less than a month, I have no need where to go anywhere in particular, but need to keep paddling and my head above the water.

The future is wide open to me now. I will need to find a part-time job this fall, but I can take my time. I can swim a little and tread water. Or, I can keep treading water for a while and just rest. There are so many things I want to do and experience. Now I have all the time in the world.


I don't want to tread water forever. Good exercise as it is, I need to work my mind, push myself to do a few more strokes, swim from one end to the other and keep going, get my body and mind in better shape.



But, for now it is okay to stop, tread the water, watch the clouds, talk to a neighbor, follow the path of a dragonfly. As long as my head is above the water!