My family and I belonged to a country club located across the street from the Long Island Sound. Each summer, the big attraction for us was the pool. I learned how to swim and joined the swimming team but was never really a good swimmer. However, swimming in my younger days was a way to keep cool, and swimming on a team gave me identity and a sense of belonging. It also became invaluable many years later.
Fast-forward (快进) to 1973 - I was married, pregnant and had a home. What made our little home even more wonderful was when I discovered that four blocks away was Rath Park Pool! For the next 30 years, most of our summer days were spent around that pool.
Each of my five kids took swimming lessons and learned all the different swimming strokes (姿势).They later joined the swim team and competed in meets. My daughter even became a lifeguard at the town pool. I sat back and happily took it all in!
As much as I would have liked to have life stand still, it doesn't. My children outgrew their pool days and moved on. But the pool was still four blocks from my home, so I began to take up swimming again. And it was far better than I ever could have imagined. I got so much out of it that I joined the local pool so I could swim year-round. Whenever I swam, I would always come out feeling physically and mentally refreshed. I often felt that if I looked hard enough, I would be able to see all of the worries and problems I've had in life, sitting at the bottom of the pool!
What has swimming taught me? I've learned that balance is the key to being a good swimmer. If you are balanced in the water, you have no resistance. Working on staying balanced made me realize the similarities between life in and out of the swim lane (泳道).If you work on keeping yourself balanced, you will be able to swim right through the stress and problems life throws at you!
