All my life I’ve struggled with swimming. I’ve almost drowned twice, and I would add one more time simply due to the terror that swept through me that I might go under.
I typically chalked up my lack of water-favor and water-fervor to my lack of swimming lessons when I was a child, or my sinus issues when freestyling. My wife and friends swim across a lake, and I only join them if I’m wearing a life preserver or sporting a raft.
Then, a friend informed me that because of bone density, there are some people who tend to sink, while others tend to float. I never heard such a thing; but it explained alot. I’ve always struggled to stay above the water, in every setting.
As far back as I can remember, I sunk. Add to this that I hate getting cold, and you understand why I happily watch my children spend hours in the water while I watch from the sidelines.
Then, my friend Brian bought a BodyGlove. $35 CAN at Costco. Big end of summer sale.
He said, “I float. I’m warm. I want to swim.”
After much deliberation, I bought one.
I float. I’m warm. I want to swim, too.
My life has changed this summer. I want to swim. All the time. You can’t get me out of the water.
A simple truth. A risky purchase based on a simple truth. An outward change that others would find fodder for uninvited commentary. Old fears displaced by a fresh sense of possibility.
As an unwitting evangelist for BodyGlove, I now have 4 friends interested in buying one themselves, and none of them surf.
One man’s hope precipitates another’s; not a work that is so hard to do when one has fully bought in, and taken the risk. Thanks, BodyGlove.
P.S. My wife is diggin’ the new look. Smokin’.