You've got to start sometime!

When I was in high school, the one class I absolutely loathed was gym class (This is not counting Mrs. Y's algebra class, of course--she put me off math for years!). Whydid you loathe PE, you ask? Our gym teacher kept trying to get me to do things that my body simply wasn't designed to do! Running isn't easy for a person with one leg a bit shorter than the other, so I was always one of the last runners trying to do the mile without keeling over. It wasn't much help that I had chronic asthma and bronchitis at that point in my life, either. Nope, running wasn't so good to me. Gymnastics? I loved the uneven parallel bars, but as for the rest of it, who could do it? Skinny little girls who took gymnastics, that's who. Sadly, this didn't even begin to fit my physical description. There were only two things from my gym classes that I really loved: folk dancing and swimming. We had opportunities to do both for gym that were tantalizing and all too brief for my taste.

There's a pool not too far from my house here in San Francisco, and my doctor suggested that I try swimming while I was recovering from a foot injury. The first time I found it hard to do ten laps in an hour. That was about 2 years ago. Now, I'm able to swim a mile in an hour (that's 36 laps back and forth in our pool), which truly amazes me.

I love the water--I love the feeling I get as I move through one stroke at a time. It is one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. It feels free, and it feels so joyous--something I was meant to do. I don't feel out of shape and overweight in the least when I'm swimming. Now, if my gym teacher had been smart and really wanted to help, she would have said to herself, "OK, we aren't going to make a gymnast of her, but she loves folk dancing (even if she is a klutz) and she is a fairly good swimmer. Why don't we let the girl just keep swimming?"

Hence the name of my blog. This is a celebration of sorts and I hope that the words that I write will encourage you to get off your chair and into the pool. Or to go on, take that dance class already, get off your chair, dear couch potato and just get moving while you can! I've discovered that there's a freedom that comes from getting over yourself and just getting in the pool. Who cares how you look in that bathing suit? If you are lap swimming, no one, I repeat no one gives a rip about how you look. Lap swimmers only care about how many laps they can complete before the whistle blows. That's the truth!

So here's to freedom of all kinds. Especially the kind that let's you know that because of Y'shua, the label "fat girl" isn't an eternal one. Yes, Y'shua. Because Y'shua, the Jewish Messiah is the one who lovingly prodded me to get into the pool, using my hilarious doctor to do it. While Dr. "S" may have made the suggestion, Y'shua gave me the shove into the waters. And like every step of faith, this one has brought some new things that have been unexpected and delightful, but not always easy.