Two days ago I went for my first lake swim of the 2019 season.I recorded the date after finding the journal where the previous years first swim dates are written down. Not the earliest and not the latest but noteworthy never the less. Noteworthy for me anyway who considers a swim in the lake a spiritual experience. Each year that I am afforded that gift is another year I am given to live this blessed life. Yesterday I dropped the first seeds in this year’s garden. I drop them with hopefulness despite last year’s failures. I drop the tiny sunflower seed hoping for a towering plant to grow. Today I will devote the whole day to getting all the other seeds in the ground. Burton will devote his time to building a fence around the garden to keep out the roaming farm animals and pecking hens. In a bit more than a week I will bring our girls home for another summer. They arrive older and changed from who they were last year. Hopeful and thankful and believing in the promise of summer. The jump in the lake is always an effort that pays off.It always begins with the debate that goes on on my head as I wade in convincing myself to let go of the fear, the doubt, the discomfort so I can receive the blessing, the refreshment and the joy. Believe in the beauty and the bounty and let the worry go. Maybe we will not get enough rain, maybe animals will break down the fence, maybe we will not weed and hoe as much as we should but still we try.The lake ,the garden, the grandchildren, the wonder of a summer’s day all worth believing in.So today do the work needed to start the process, drop those seeds and believe and later go jump in the lake.
A garden from a previous summer.
Granddaughters from a previous summer.
In the Lake Again
