Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Plunging In

A heat wave is burning through the area ... the day began with temps at 10 degrees! You don't realize how warm that feels until you've grown used to subzero windchills. Suddenly, spring is in the air.... A flock of bluejays--I saw nine--settled beneath the base of the bird feeder and tipped their heads down, tails up as they pecked through snow in search of fallen seeds.

Yesterday a patron at the library--a resident of Madeline Island--talked about the just-frozen lake. The ice has temporarily put his lake swims on hold. Up until recently he continued to don a drysuit (or wetsuit? I'm not familiar with varieties of cold weather suits) and swim near shore as long as lake and air temps remained near 30 degrees. As soon as air temps fell into the teens, he admitted, he could no longer stay warm enough in his suit. Brrr.

During this conversation one of my co-workers mentioned that two years ago she jumped into the lake for her final swim of the season in November. She managed several strokes before she decided to return to shore. Do you have a spotter? she asked him since she'd arranged for her mother to attend her late season swim. No, he replied, nobody wants to be outside watching in this weather.

Cold weather swims were the theme of the day. Later another patron asked for pledges to support her polar bear plunge scheduled for March 6 at the Bayfield Winter Carnival. She's a veteran polar plunger and she proudly announced that she'd talked other family members into joining her. I gave her some cash from my wallet and told her it might be enough to cover one finger in the water. Then we both decided it may more likely cover a toe or two.

Today's T'ai Chi Chih practice was amazing. Comforting. Soothing. Regenerative. It helped that I felt tired at the start since I began my practice with a relaxed, receptive mind and body. (It did take me until the first repetitions of Around the Platter to slow my pace, however.)

Partway through practice tears ran down my face as I connected to an old memory that was obviously still lodged in my body and mind. Later another memory surfaced. Soon the tears were gone and I felt, well, lighter.

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