Learning How To Swim...

I always thought I would learn to swim one day. Watching others float gracefully in a pool or even seeing my own son playfully cut through the water like an otter made me envious. But it's not likely to happen in my lifetime. You see, I have a great fear of getting into the water.

Even though I was raised near the bayous of southern Louisiana where I was literally surrounded by water, learning to swim was never a priority. By the time I graduated high school I still saw no opportunity to learn and decided my life wouldn't be missing much by my lacking that particular skill. 

I was wrong.

The summer I turned eighteen my Navy officer brother invited me to visit him in sunny California. He was stationed in San Diego and to a shy, small town girl, it was as close to a glamorous adventure as I'd ever hoped to see. The trip turned out to be an uneventful one until the day he invited one of his Navy buddies to come along with us as we spent the day at Coronado Beach.

I began that day having great fun as I dug my toes into the cool wet sand and chased the edges of the waves as they returned to the sea. It should have been a sweet memory to take home with me. My brother and his friend, on the other hand, thought it would be great sport to grab me and toss me into the ocean to see if I could make it back to shore on my own.

In one terrifying moment I went from listening to seagulls call out to each other high above me to finding myself face down in knee deep ocean water. Disoriented and choking on salt water, I didn't know where land was and nearly drowned before my brother and his friend stopped laughing enough to realize they needed to rescue me.

It's been a long time since that day, yet I've never overcome my fear of the water despite having a tremendous love and appreciation for the ocean. But if I ever did try to swim I imagine there would be three things I would learn to do first before I jumped into the deep end of the pool...

1. START SMALL

Children learn to swim by beginning to tread water and dog paddle. It's the small steps which help a person gain confidence while those small steps eventually add up to greater accomplishments.

2. KEEP PRACTICING

Swimming is like any other sport and it takes practice to get better at it. There are books on the science of the subject, places like the YMCA where lessons are taught, and swim groups where you can receive encouragement from other practitioners while you are learning to make it on your own.

3. HAVE FAITH

One day you are just going to have to let go of the flotation device and trust that you know what you are doing. To take a leap of faith and test the waters on your own, proving to yourself there's nothing to be afraid of.

Come to think of it, sounds a bit like becoming a writer, doesn't it?

Novice writers need to take those small steps of learning their craft, practicing their skill by writing every day, learning from those who came before them, and having faith in their ability to become stronger the longer they work at it. It doesn't happen all in one day. Just like learning how to swim.

Maybe one day I will learn how to swim for real but until then I'll concentrate on learning how to swim through the publishing waters until I make it all the way to the deep end...

Anyone Know How To Dog Paddle?

All my life I've wanted to learn how to swim.  I'm drawn to the ocean...to the call of the seagulls and the song of the whales.  When I retire I want to move to the coast of Maine and spend my golden years living like Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote...without the murders, of course!

You would think someone who is so mesmerized by the water would know how to swim in it.  Unfortunately no, although it isn't for my not wishing otherwise.  When I was seventeen, I visited my Naval officer brother who thought it would be amusing to take me out to the Pacific Ocean at Coronado Beach and dump me in the water  That would have been okay if I knew how to swim, but I didn't and I came close to drowning before he and his navy buddies drug me back to shore.

Needless to say, I now have an irrational fear of the water which wars with my fascination and deep love of anything nautical.  But since returning to my writing, I have begun to wonder if maybe I should try to learn how to swim?  I mean there is always that saying about waiting for one's ship to come in but at the rate I'm going with my writing...maybe I need do like this guy and to learn how to swim out to it!

Just Keep Swimming...

All my life I have wanted to learn how to swim.  Even the doggie paddle looks refreshing on a hot summer day.  Maybe I just need to start somewhere and keep on swimming.  To me, it's kinda like being a writer.

I started out not knowing much about the writing industry.  But I wanted to learn so I put a toe in.  Tested the waters. Began with the doggie paddle and learned from those who had swam before me.  I tried to avoid the deep end because I wasn't ready yet.  I needed to take a few more lessons.  Strengthen my skills to make sure I could  stay afloat as I spent more and more time in the water.

Then came the moment when I moved into the deeper end.  My confidence as a writer grew and I felt I could hold my own with the bigger fish.  Sometimes ahead of the pack and sometimes behind, I just kept swimming and never took my eyes from my goal of becoming published.

The longer I swim, the stronger I will become and who knows?  One day I might even come away with the gold and will be able to call myself a published author!  Until then, I will remember the lessons learned along the way.  I will watch out for my swimming buddies and help them stay afloat whenever they need help.  And I will never forget the wisdom of one little fish who found herself in the middle of a great big ocean...