Every year in late May we pull out the goggles, fins, suits and coolers and begin preparing for the summer competitive swim season. We don't do team sports throughout the rest of the year but in the summer, the girls swim. With every ounce of their being, they swim.
I'll admit, and my kids know this, that I have a love hate relationship with summer. Around March, I begin envisioning easy summer afternoons with good books and lots of completed home projects (at last!) and I begin to not-so-subtly hint that perhaps our family might consider taking a summer off from swimming - a suggestion considered anathema to the swimmers in the family. So I surrender my Wednesdays (meet days) and hope that maybe those other wonderful plans will fall in around the practices and meets. They never do and come mid-July, I always wonder where the summer has gone and why my expectation never matches the reality. On paper, my aspirations for the summer months always look do-able but the day to day reality is that, for a number of reasons, those things rarely get done. So why to do I succumb to the madness?
First and foremost, I trust my husband and his love for me and our kids. When he tells me it's good for them, for us, to do this, I believe him because I'm confidant he has my (and their) best interests at heart.
Secondly, I do it because I love my kids. And as this book emphasizes so well and also as August reminds me often, I understand that one of the best ways to love my kids is to love the things they love. An even truer mantra, as I'm quickly learning, for the adolescent years.
Thirdly, I do it as an exercise in dying to myself which seems to be something I come back to as a mom again and again.
And so this past Wednesday, in what had to be the wettest, dreariest evening of the year, we sloshed in the rain and mud for hours while the girls competed. As we were preparing for the rainy evening, my number one goal was to keep my kids - especially Brayden - as warm and dry as possible through the evening. We packed warm towels (lots of them!) in a cooler and I grabbed my Moby Wrap with the plan to wear Brayden much of the evening. (I'll add here that someone has acquired quite a "Moby addiction" but I'll not say which one of us! :-) ) I also had to be sure I kept track of all four girls' events. I've learned over the years that the best way for me to do this is with lots of Sharpie marker scrawled down my arm. I can't lose my "notes" and they don't wear off for days. In our 9 years of summer swimming, I've only missed two races and one of those times was last week......because I didn't take the time to make my "arm notes" with Sharpie ahead of time. This week, I made sure that wouldn't happen again. After lots of teamwork through the afternoon, I was ready......we were ready......for the long, rainy, cool evening.
What we hadn't counted on was the MUD. And there was lots of it.....everywhere. And yesterday, much of the mud that was there, was now HERE in my house, carried home on shoes, coolers, chairs, and towels. :(
So as I scrubbed mud out of T-shirts, socks, and baby blankets, I'm reminded myself why I do this every year - why WE do this every year. And I thought back to that moment Wednesday night when I looked through the rainy mist and saw, across the pool, lovely Marina, gliding poetically through the water with graceful strength and beauty. Her face radiating with delight and contentment, despite the cool night air and mud, as she raised arm after arm, backstroking to a strong finish. That smile made every load of muddy laundry worth it...........I think. ;)
