Many . Happy . Returns
Life presents opportunities to step outside of our comfort zone, to do something different, to stretch ourselves, if only we’d seize those moments. I had such an unexpected moment this morning.
I arrived at my local beach before eight, rugged up against the cool wind and the chill morning. Although it was only nine degrees, I was looking forward to my walk.
Usually during my afternoon walks the beach is deserted so it was a surprise to find other people there; and even more surprising to see them swimming. As I passed them I saw that the couple (a man and a woman) were quite a bit older than me. We exchanged greetings. I continued walking; they continued drifting through the water.
My brain seemed to be ricocheting a million thoughts.
Wow! They’re amazing.
They must be freezing.
They must be crazy.
Wow! Good on them.
How incredible.
I could never do that.
It’s too cold for me.
Are they locals?
Maybe they’re tourists from somewhere really cold.
Do they do this regularly?
Who are they?
Wish I could do that.
Could I do that?
It’d be freezing.
Yes it would.
They’ve got to be 20 years older than me.
Come on, surely I could have a go.
But it’d be really cold.
Yes, it would.
I know it’s going to be cold - but is that a reason to not do it?
The cold won’t kill me.
Maybe I could just have a quick dip?
If they can do it, why can’t I?
As so my thoughts kept bouncing around. By the time I got back from my walk they were drying themselves. I went over and introduced myself and told them how inspiring they were. We chatted and I learnt that it was the woman’s birthday. (She happily pointed to an envelope with her name on it, propped on a rock.)
I watched as her friend unscrewed a thermos flask and poured them both a cup of warming tea.
I learnt that they come every morning of the year for a swim. No matter the weather.
Mary, the woman, told me that she felt alive after her swim. That, at her age, it was important to get out, do things, mix with people. She said that as an older person if you locked yourself away, if you isolated yourself, people would forget about you and ‘then one day you’d be dead and they’d say they thought you’d died years ago’. There was no way that she was doing that, no; she was seizing every moment.
When they left for a walk I thought about the kind of person I wanted to be. I thought about the me that encouraged my children to have a go, but maybe wasn’t my own number one cheer squad. I thought about Mary and her no nonsense attitude that was determined to squeeze life out of each day.
There are some things from which there is no comfortable turning back. And that is what happened to me. I had been shown a possibility, a way of grasping life. Even though I had debated its merits in my mind, finally the pull to be stretched, to see what I’m capable of, and the thrill of doing something extraordinarily different in my day - made it impossible to literally ‘stand on the edge’.
And so, I peeled off my layers and let myself slide in. And. It. Was. So. Cold - that I couldn’t breathe. But, quite quickly it felt like every part of me was smiling. I felt like I was truly and consciously living that moment. Really, perhaps that is all we can hope for and aspire to - to fully live each and every moment.
