SWIMMING
I swam this morning for for the first time in… years. My youngest son plays water polo, but his team has been on involuntary hiatus for the past three months. With pools beginning to open again, we took to the water to begin to train. It wasn’t pretty, but there was so much I loved about it.
First of all, I love that my son loves the water as much as I do. He’s always been a water rat. With a December birthday, I had him in the pool his first summer. At 18 months, it was hard to keep him out of the water (that was a challenging summer!) And by 2 1/2 he was swimming. He could and would spend hours in the pool, playing with toys, making up stories, and just relaxing. He has a true love of the water.
Around age three, I saw him flutter kick across the pool, and I thought to myself, “THAT’S what a ‘natural kick’ looks like.” He swam effortlessly, and I knew if he wanted to be a swimmer, he had the talent.
Well, he also likes to talk. And he prefers team sports to individual ones; so swimming was never in the cards. But a team sport in the water, where he can talk? Water Polo is right up his alley (or lane).
He would much rather train with his teammates and friends (and he’s done that this week too), but today it was just mom. On the way to the pool, he explained with enthusiasm the sets we’d be swimming. On our way to the locker room, he explained in detail how to alternate my breathing 3-5-7-9 (this of course cracked me up, as though I didn’t know how to breathe when I swim…but I just listened). Then we got in the water and he continued to encourage me, “You got this mom! 7s are the hardest.” Um, it was all hard for me! But I was so, so happy to be swimming again, and I was even happier to be swimming with him.
In a few short weeks, fingers crossed, he will get his drivers license. I know that will limit the time I spend with him; he won’t need me as much any more, and I might not get the invitations to swim with him, because he won’t need a ride. I know from my oldest son, that a drivers license is the first step to the independence that eventually leads to leaving for college.
But today I got to do what I love, with someone I love, who loves it as much as I do. That’s a gift I will treasure.