Learning to swim.
I was nine years old.
I and a few other children
at the summer camp could
not swim. We did not go far
out into the water. I had tried
to teach me the years before but
could not. I did not get myself to float.
Now I remember that I tragglade again
and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again
in the sand. My heels made patterns in the sand for
how the leg movements would work.
Arm movements, I had already understood. Still I did not
float. I practiced and practiced, repeated, polished
in the sand and then - one day
I experienced fluency, both
literally and mentally.
I slid forward in the
water and my
abdomen
did not fall further. Hahaha,
I felt it suddenly as easily.
Why had I not
realized it before?
It was the combination,
when the arms were in a
particular location the legs
would be of another, and this
should sync for it to wear in the water.