I have not posted in quite some time. Our family had a tragedy in July and we are still not fully recovered. That, coupled with my recent Lyme diagnosis, has left me in the shadows many days. Because I promised this blog would focus on gratitude, I've stayed away.
Some of you may know our relationship with my daughter has been virtually non-existent for many years, stemming from our having custody of her daughters, our granddaughters.
The bright spot of July's tragedy is that it brought my daughter and me to be close again. Since that day we have not missed a day of touching base, whether it's a visit, a call, or a quick text: "You good?" "Yep! You good?" "Yep!"
I know I hate it when a writer says, "Words cannot express..." but truly I cannot share the depth of how much it means to have my daughter back. I'm not sure I could have survived our shared tragedy without her support and wisdom.
Having served in Iraq, she suffers from PTSD, among other things, and has a challenge being in crowds. The dichotomy is that the sanctuary she seeks in her own home sometimes becomes her prison.
We agreed to swim together at the Y in the mornings. She can't or won't go without a companion and I am happy to be that for her. I need some gentle exercise after being idle from Lyme exhaustion for months. It's mutually beneficial.
The first day I swam ten laps. In eight of those ten, I had to stop mid-lane, catch my breath, and make my way to the other end of the pool. Only two of the ten laps were uninterrupted.
After a couple of weeks I am proud to report I'm swimming 20 laps and only 3-4 are interrupted for breathing. I do have to rest a moment after each lap before continuing. This is ok with me.
My goal is to reach a consistent 20 laps with no stops and improve on my technique before adding more laps. Eventually I would like to reach a mile.
As for my daughter, she has quickly achieved her goal of swimming a mile. An old swim team girl, she knows how to do flip turns, but doesn't yet have the stamina. She hopes to integrate this skill into her mile.
Her mile takes longer than my 20 laps so I happily slosh over to the Jacuzzi to wait for her to finish. She is fine with my being out of the pool as long as I'm nearby.
Due to her fear of crowds we meet at 5:45am. The whole thing takes about an hour and it's an hour well spent. We are both happy with our progress and I treasure the time with her. It's a crowded pool with two high school teams practicing, but we are happy to share a lane.
The experience is healthy on a number of levels: emotionally, physically, mentally.
I. am. grateful.
#LoveMyLife
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