Article June 24, 2019 Issue

Buoyant in Spirit

Marty Jones

I love to swim. I love the way it feels to glide through the water, feeling weightless and graceful, or to simply float with the water “holding me” as I lift up my face to a warm sun.

This wasn’t always the case. When I was a child, my mother enrolled me in a series of swimming lessons at a local pool, and I dreaded them. I remember trying to stay on my tiptoes to keep my face above the water, or swimming a few strokes then desperately grabbing the side of the pool just to make sure it was there. I tried to get over my fear by making myself jump into the water over and over, but the fear remained.

Even after being promoted to the deep water, I told each new teacher that I couldn’t swim so I could stay in a class with my feet or hands touching something solid. This all changed one rainy Saturday when only a couple of students were in class. Our teacher reminded me that it didn’t matter how deep the water was as long as I stayed on top of it. He then had us all swim the full length of the pool, but wouldn’t permit me to be in an outer lane where I could grab on to the side. And so I swam, breathing as I had been taught and getting to the other end with no breaks. To this day, I still remember the transformative joy I felt at the end of that first swim. I went on to become a lifeguard and swimming teacher as well as a water lover.

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