1 Mother 2 Another

For the past three years, we’ve seen
slow but steady progress in Maddie’s relationship with the
water: she loves being in it, but is fearful of new experiences, so
progresses very slowly on the swimming front. She’s been
taking swim lessons since she was three, but even this year has had
significant meltdowns and mental walls that she’s run into.
We seem to hit that wall, stay there, inch our way forward, then
have a lovely breakthrough.


I’m happy to say that right now we’re in the
breakthrough stage.

Maddie ended her summer swim lessons a
couple weeks ago on a high note; after a day of panic and crying,
she was able to overcome that fear and continue on. Since then,
she’s been playing in the water and enjoying it more and
more, to the point that yesterday she was under water more than she
was above it.


Maddie doesn’t have the stroke thing down very well, but she
can hold her breath like Mark Spitzer and will swim from one side
of the pool to the other in one breath, partly so she simply
won’t have to stop swimming. She’s been hesitant about
heading into deeper waters where she can’t touch –
afraid she won’t be able to catch a breath – but last
night she discovered the joy of standing on the bottom of the pool,
completely submerged, and now I think I’m going to have one
waterlogged mermaid on my hands.


My girl will dive like a dolphin and try to “frolic” in
the waves. She just figured out how to blow out her air and sit on
the bottom of the pool. She will hover, sideways or crooked or in
an arc, in mid-water for several seconds. She is, quite simply, in
love with being under water.


I remember being that age, and being entrance by the completely
different world under water. Down there, everything moves slower,
the light’s broken up into beautiful patterns, sound is
muffled entrancingly, and you are weightless, suspended. I see the
magic and other-worldiness in Maddie’s eyes and know
she’s somewhere far away in her head, having a grand old
time.


I know there’s a lot more time left in the summer, and
I’ll eventually tire of the pool. But for right now, I feel
so triumphant seeing my timid girl living underwater that I
can’t imagine ever becoming jaded about that.