Dive into Creativity

Judith Heaney
4 min readJul 9, 2019

We are in the middle of summer break with our 11- and 9-year-old girls, and that means days spent swimming. Because we’re in western North Carolina, our swimming is centered around a pool (rather than the beach which this New England girl loves when we can get there).

photo credit: Pexels on Pixabay

Because we like to focus on being present with our kids, my husband and I both tend to join them in the pool. What better way to spend a hot, sunny, humid summer day, right? Of course, when it’s 90 degrees outside, the pool water tends to feel a whole lot colder than it really is.

With that in mind, we all know there are two approaches one can take to getting into the water: one can jump in and submerge oneself completely and immediately (no hesitation, no time to second guess); or, one can take to the stairs and submerge oneself slowly, almost painfully, sensing every cold droplet as it touches the surface of the skin (this may include long pauses, plenty of second guesses, and, at times, even some moving backwards up the stairs or to the shallower waters if you’ve moved too quickly into the deep, 3 foot mark before you were ready).

In the first instance, most often practiced by my husband, he breaks the surface with gusto and declares the experience quite refreshing, shaking water from his hair and laughing.

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