Getting thrown in the deep end...

The swimming pool has been such a metaphor for my life. I was born in the summer and my mother liked to call me her water baby. At 3 months old she took me to the pool & as instructed, threw me in. So let me share with you that my mother was absolutely not a strong swimmer. She was terrified of the water in fact. However, she didn't want me to be so she trusted the teacher, trusted herself, trusted God & ultimately trusted her 3 month old daughter & tossed me in. I, of course, don't remember this. But I can tell you that I have never feared jumping into life. You can say that I was born this way or that the toss is what did it for me, it lifted fear & allowed me the ability to trust myself when I jumped into the deep end. We'll never know. My sister was far older when she began swim lessons. She never really cared for it although like everything else in her life she became quite proficient at it. And like jumping into the deep end, my sister takes a more cautious approach to everything else in life as well. Could the difference be she never had that big liberating plunge? We'll never know.

Fast forward thirty-some-odd years ahead to my daughter's 3rd month birthday. There I am at the local YMCA in my black one-piece "mom" Speedo tossing my daughter into the deep in. I swear she smiled and rolled onto her back and floated. Well, maybe not but she did take to the water like a fish. She also has a summer birthday, could that be the link instead? We'll never know.

What I do know is that 2 years later when my son was 3 months old I hesitated. I hesitated for so long that his toss into the deep end never really happened. He was different. Even as a baby I knew he was more tentative than my daughter. I felt like I was respecting his soul by giving him the time to become acquainted with the water. It would end up being 3 years later and not 3 months later that he was ready to be fearless when it came to jumping in. It took a long time & he had to be reassured but eventually he began to trust us, trust the pool and truly trust himself.

I know that this won't be the only issue in their lives where my daughter will be more than willing to jump into the deep end head first & bother to ask questions later, whereas my son will quietly contemplate what his next moves will be & the best way to make it over to the side after he makes his jump. While we will never know what has caused them each to think & act or react so differently the beauty is in watching them each dive in to their own lives to become their own people it's not in how they do it. Michael Phelps has nothin' on them.