face your fears

As a kid I was deathly afraid of water. It was a struggle just to get me near a bathtub and forget about a swimming pool or lake. I deduce the reason was because it was necessary to douse me in what I recall were ice-cold baths (actually they were tepid) in order to reduce the high fevers from painful kidney infections. The axe-in-your-side kind.

For some crazy reason my parents decided it was a good idea to put me in swimming lessons. I was around 10 or 11 and my poor swimming teacher couldn't even get me to put my face in the water.

Then something happened. I don't remember the exact details but I remember waking up one day and deciding that was the day I was going to jump in. Literally. Two years later I was on the high school varsity swim team and the local year-round swim club. Today I can't imagine my life without the water. The beach by the Pacific Ocean is my favorite place in the world and where I feel most at peace with the Universe.

Sometimes in life we are faced with various manifestations of my pool of water. The most frightening thing is, the only way to get to our Peace is to jump in.

Press on.