Sunday, August 20, 2017

Swiming at 80!

Being 80 (which is only a number for God's sake) now means further fixating on disciplined choosing. Each morning offers another chance to choose a few more hours of doing something that furthers "good health" or doing nothing at all, just nothing. However, choosing to do nothing is actually doing something isn't it?

I've mentioned my daily doings which I list and share each day with my Facebook "Homemakers' Encouragement" group. We start off with someone listing their "things done - item by item" and the next person follows with their completed tasks. In my list I include: swim 10 laps, did water exercises.

I do some morning arguing with myself deciding whether or not that I "feel like it" - feel like slipping into the cool and sometimes very chilly pool water. The water welcomes me. The flowers around the pool say "Hello, It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"
The Pool and The Cottage

There's a CD player on the cottage porch which I use to play music of Caribbean steel drums, classical guitar and/or boogie woogie piano. Music helps.

Looking at the huge trees on the horizon helps me count each lap. I like seeing he bright open sky (sometimes without clouds - just a swatch of cerulean blue) which may signal a clear day. Other days there are varied cloud formations which may be an indication of rain "later". Then, there are the times when it's fun to swim as big rain drops splash down and around me. (I choose not to swim when it's lightning, of course).

After I complete my morning swim routine, I am chilly unless I take a hot steamy shower. It takes hours to warm up, but the "whole routine" does wake me up and gives me "a better mind-set".

I label myself as a "swimmer" because it's been the exercise I have been doing for a lifetime. I'm a casual swimmer, not an athletic swimmer. I swim because I like swimming. I like water. Mama started us off by taking us to the local swimming pools in Glendale and Wyoming, Ohio. We had lessons at the YWCA on 9th Street in Cincinnati. I took swimming lessons at 4-H camp and at Ohio State University. I even had my Red Cross Life Guard certificate! So, I definitely am a swimmer!

Later in life I've enjoyed swimming at a local gym, in hotel pools, lakes (not Lake Tahoe, too cold) and the Caribbean waters. The challenge now is to "keep on swimming"!

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