May Grey

Left the house at 9:40 and its overcast skies and 58 degrees. I get to the parking lot and water surface looks glassy. Walking down the stairs I’m a bit cold for some reason but I anticipate I’ll be fine once I’m in the water. It’s an odd reality. I feel my body saying, “I don’t want to do this. Can’t we just put on another jacket and call it a morning?” However I have done this so many times and I know that once you submerge yourself in the water, the body shifts into a different mode. Even if the water is cold, you may feel a sense of coldness but its not like you are swimming and shivering in a state of misery. You do feel like your body is working to keep warm which is hard to describe. It’s like you can sense the calories are being burned and it is adding effort to the swim but not like the extra effort you would use to run up a hill.

For the most part, conditions are the same as yesterday. Maybe cloudier, a little warmer outside and the tide is not so low.

Its a good swim. Like yesterday, I’m seeking to align my thoughts with the feel and sounds of the water. Sometimes I find my mind getting bored or antsy during a swim. I want to be done. Then I ask myself why? What else would I rather be doing? Years ago when I started meditating, I would have similar thoughts - has it been 40 minutes yet? Now I still have all kinds of distracting thoughts during meditation, but I rarely want to be done. I enjoy every minute. Sometimes “enjoy” may not be the right word but I have no eagerness to be done. So as I swim I try to put myself in that same frame of mind. Relaxing into every stroke and every breath.

The clouds and the still cloudy water make it feel like I am surrounded by gray. Everything is just gray. Especially as I head north where I breath looking west. At one point half way through the swim I am startled thinking I heard a dolphin exhale out its snout. I stop and look around. No dolphin. Could easily be my ears tricking me with my own breath. There are times where I hear my breath under water and it doesn’t sound like it is coming from me.

I finish up and I am starting to feel some sun even though it is still quite cloudy. Today I feel like putting on a layer for the stairs. Why suffer? When I get to the top of the stairs I see a maintenance crew working on the funicular. It’s like a roller coaster for old people? Its been down for a few weeks so good to see it will be back up and running for those who can’t do the stairs.