Swimming

I just finished reading a book this morning called The Last Summer (of you and me) by Ann Brashares. She's one of my favorite authors because of her insight and beautiful descriptions of life that seem to strip away all that should matter to what really matters. Spoiler alert: One of the characters in the book, Riley, passes away suddenly in the end of the book and while I was not actual friends with her, I mourn the loss of her character. In tribute to Riley who loved to the water:

"People left a lot of things behind when they went in the water. Their clothes, their stuff, their make-up, their fixed-up hair, their voices, their hearing, their sight - at least as they normally experience them. Some people lost their individuality in the water, but Riley always felt most herself. Water was supposed to symbolize renewal, she knew, but when Riley swam - pared down, alone and unreachable - she felt a deeper sense of who she already was. The ocean was the best place, of course. That was what she loved most. It was a feeling of freedom like no other, and yet a feeling of communion with all the other places and creatures the water touched. The repetitive motions of her limbs was a meditation, the stretch of her muscles a narcotic. She heard her breathe and even her heart. She gradually lost the awareness of the few other people beyond the glass. The regular things couldn't follow you here. You could escape the demands of the world. Even the demands you imposed on yourself seemed to recede and reorient underwater. You couldn't hear and you couldn't talk. Your ears were full, but it was quiet."

I love this description of something so freeing and what she loves. It begs the question, what in life makes me feel this way? What in life makes YOU feel this way?

This book describes a world where people summered at a beach house on the east coast. They describe the easy, simple way of life, where people walk in and out of each other's houses without knocking and no one wears shoes. It revealed a desire in me that I've always known was there but never fully actualized until recently: that I feel most myself and most free when I'm in a place where material stuff, money and image don't matter. I think I live in the wrong country. :) I am sure that is why missions appeals to me, living in Africa, because people don't value you based on what you look like, how much money is in your bank, what car you drive or what your house looks like. Camp is the same way, it is simple and beautiful and there is deep fellowship found in each of these places because pretense and expectations are stripped away and what's left is real and raw and beautiful. And I love that and I want to try and live that way - againsts the current. There is a stream that runs right behind my house and I picture myself make-up less with my hair in a pony tail and bare-feet, walking up the river, against the flow of water and yet loving the feel of the water as it flows past my bare shins and through my toes.

I'm on a 30 minute break from Bed, Bath and Beyond (for all the reasons above, I struggle to be in an environment where money and things matter) so I have to go before I'm late.