A ribbon of sparkling light stretches ahead and draws me towards the sun. The gleaming band increases in brightness as I swim into deeper water and the crystal depths become turquoise and green.

The cold purifies the thought and emotion and holds the body weightless and motionless in its grasp. A mere turn of the hand keeps the head upright above the ripples that would surely drag it down.

As I look upwards at the encircling trees, they are already changing brown. Nut brown leaves, the first of the crop, hover and twist in the liquid, the perfect accompaniment to the blue below and up.

Perpendicular, I hang in the cold, with muscles aching from the exertion and chilly waves, I realize that everyone needs a mountain to climb and an ocean to swim…