In the deep, once again

I had a chance to swim last Thursday and then on Saturday morning and again today, which was delightful. I think I'm back into a rhythm once again--at least I hope so. I'm so thankful that the ears have cleared up, and that I'm back at it because once you stop, it isn't so easy to get started (that old, "a body at rest remains at rest, a body in motion remains in motion" sort of thing from your high school physics class that you never paid attention to but now seems to make more sense than it ever did because YOU are the body!). Last week was such a busy, stressful week, and it was a gift to be able to swim and let it all go, and leave it all behind in the pool.

It is hard to pray while you swim. I lose count of what lap I'm on and to tell you the truth, because I do have a goal (to swim 50 miles by the end of December) I am trying to keep a fairly accurate count. I used to try to pray and count by doing some silly word associations: I'm thankful for You, the One God who is King of all. I'm thankful for the two tablets of the Law and how they tell us of your righteous standards. I'm thankful for the fact that you have revealed yourself as a perfect Echad, a unity of Three Persons in one glorious God...well, you get the picture. Unfortunately, I'm not always clever to figure out what I can say next in keeping with the Bible theme (especially when you get to lap 29+ you can paint yourself into a corner with your metaphors!) What usually happens is, if I don't remember what number I'm on, I do an extra lap, just in case.

The forecast said that it was likely to rain on Saturday and Sunday which dismayed us a bit because it is hard to move house in the rain, and that's what our daughter and son-in-love were going to be doing, moving house. The wonderful thing that happened was, that it did rain, but not until everything was moved. A small army of dear people helped, and I continue to be thankful for the community that God has gifted us with. It is wonderful to see the "one-anothers" of Scripture being lived out in practical ways through people who really want to follow the Messiah not just in words, but in deeds of love.

We were able to do our walk Saturday, but Sunday we woke up at 5 AM to the sound of a very hard rain hitting the windows and the skylight. It rained quite a bit--where did that glorious heat wave go when the Giants had their celebratory parade in the city, anyway? It felt like winter had arrived, and to be honest, I am not ready for it...not at all.

We had an unexpected gift--we wanted to walk and after we read the paper in the mid-afternoon, it seemed that there was actually some blue sky out there--enough for us to get our exercise shoes on and head down to the water before the weather changed its mind again. We did our entire walk, and looked out at the water, which kept changing, watching the play of the clouds. Then right before our eyes, the weather was turning again. The clouds were growing thick and dark, and my hubby said, "We'd better get going or we are going to get wet!" So, of course, I had to stop and snap this photo. It looked as if God was painting the sky again, using a scumbling brush to get the puffy, fluffy effect of those beautiful clouds.

Even with hooded sweatshirts on to keep our heads covered, the idea of getting wet wasn't appealing to my sweetheart, so he urged me to put away the phone and concentrate on walking. So I managed to snap this, and I really like it.

We can pray while we walk, and we do. We talk while we walk and the fact that we were able to have this unexpected time because the weather cleared and gave us a window was so very wonderful. Now that we've changed the clocks, it may not be so easy to do our evening walks--it is dark down there, and unfortunately, isn't very well lit. We'll have to figure out a clever work-around.