I’ve loved the water as long as I can remember.  Seriously. My oldest memories involve me swimming in my grandmother’s pool, jumping off the high dive at the local swimming hole for the first time, body surfing in the waters off the Gulf Coast, and jumping off my friends second story roof into his five foot swimming pool over and over again that one day we were supposed to be in school.

Then, there was this time, we had my birthday party at my grandmother’s pool, and this friend of mine started drowning.  I just remember hearing a loud commotion of people talking loudly, and then someone screaming that she was going under.  My grandmother, decked out in her high-waisted solid white pants suite and white high heels (It was the 80’s), jumped in without hesitation and she saved Leslie.

Water is profoundly powerful and scary.  It preserves life and it takes life, and we can never be sure which one it will be. Continue reading