It felt nice to be back in the swimming pool at our local YMCA and trust me friends, you'd never have heard that kind of comment from me in years past. The water was warm and there were only a few people swimming when I met my teacher, Laurie Carr, at poolside.
We got right down to business at straight up noon. The first question she asked me was what I'd like to work on today, face floating or back floating. I wish you could have seen the look on her face when I gave her my reply. It was priceless.
"I want to go to the deep end, to the 5 foot water," I told her.
I'm sure she remembered the extremely frightened woman who came to her in June of last year asking if she could take private lessons. Laurie knew my story well~how I had a "near drowning" (oh my word) experience as a 10-year old on her first day of swimming lessons, of how I had avoided the water at all cost for the past 45 years. She knew very well that it took nearly 5 lessons of coaxing and coaching me to even make it to the middle of the pool. And now, I was actually asking her this?
So the very first thing we did today was to go to the deep end. Now before some of you die laughing about this "deep end" thing...well, wait a minute. Maybe you aren't laughing after all, ok. To me, anything over the top of my head is deep enough for me. But it was there that my lesson began today.
Laurie had me wear one of the safety floatation belts that they sometimes use for people just like me. About a depth of 4 and a half feet, I felt it begin to lift me up from the pool's floor. That got a little unnerving to say the least. I'm sure Laurie could tell by the look on my face, that my bravery was slowly slipping away. No, let me rephrase that. My courage was leaving me faster than you could say, "Peggy what in the world are you thinking girl, getting yourself in over your head?"
She's a good teacher and she knows how to handle situations just like this. With a calm and reassuring voice she asked me to just grab onto the side of the pool and she'd be right beside me. She promised! So that's what I did...For just a moment in time, I was that "little 10-year old" girl again, death grip on the side of the swimming pool back in my hometown of Haven, KS. That same little girl who went home and said to her mom, "I am NOT going back in that water, and I MEAN IT!"
You know, I didn't want to die in the water that June day in 1965 and I kind of like living still today in February of 2012. I was scared today, actually very frightened of the prospects. But there was one thing different this time around. Today I was MORE determined than I was afraid and it was determination that "won out". And in the end, it paid off.
We stayed in the deep end as we practiced learning how to just tread water. It was weird, and THIS time, I wish I could have seen the look on MY face when Laurie told me...."Look Peggy. You're not even holding on to the side of the pool now!" And you know what, she was right! I don't know when I've felt as happy for myself as I did then, at that very moment.
I've got at least 3 more lessons to go and I intend to be at every one of them. "Old-lefty" loved the water but got awful tired before the 30 minutes time was up. I'm hoping to get stronger every time I go there, in both body and spirit. It can happen, I know it can.
Thanks to my good FB friend and friend from the "land of long ago and far, far, away", Barbara Kincaid, for the inspiration for the name of this particular blog post. I definitely did "run to the roar" today. For all of the times I've avoided "the roar", I have regrets. For 45 years I've been running from the fear of the water. Today I turned around to face it, and said "what do you want from me?" And you know what, that fear wasn't as big, mean and mighty as I thought it was.
Have a wonderful Saturday evening my dear and special friends. I'm still pulling for you all.
She just needed a little bit more time~well, ok a LOT more time. And
you know what? She only wishes her mom could have seen it.
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