aqua-awesome

i've started swimming again, hoping to get my head and body in a better space or something. i think it should help. there's something healing about water.

i arrived a little too early for lane swimming and sat in the hot tub for a while and watched aqua-sizing. in the change room i was loathing the silly sport because of all the naked old women that i had to see in the change room . they're the sort of women that are...let's say...comfortable with their bodies. shudder.

anyway, i got out to the deck, sat down in the hot tub and watched the end of aqua-size class. they were cooling down and doing movements to "I hope you dance" and it was one of the most beautiful things i have seen in a while. here they are, all these regular, normal people moving in sync together to an emotionally manipulative song. lifting their hands to the sky and slowly pushing through the water.

i watched them for what seemed like a long time, but it was probably only five minutes. i looked at all their faces and realized they were all like me at somepoint, they had lived these long lives, seen many sights, had their hearts broken, laughed so hard that they cried and now they were nearer the end of their lives.

and right there in that moment, i had a sense that i could also keep going. that normal, everyday people were beautiful in their own way and that included me. i have always liked foreign films because they use regular looking people that have the odd mole or crooked tooth, whose hair might be too frizzy or not the right color. it makes the movies more powerful to see every day people living out the heartbreak, tragedy or comedy.

i'm glad i went swimming. it warmed my heart.