Summer Swim
“Yet he did not waver and he persisted.”
Summer time means pool time. I grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains. Stonegate Swim Club was my home away from home every summer. The sun came up and we walked to the community pool… every day.
My brother and I were on the swim team, the Gators. I can still see and hear Congressman Griffith yell out our swim cheers. I remember the end of year sleepover in tents at the pool with no parents and only the horrific visits of the Gator Ghost to keep us company. Oh to be young and living in the 80s!
I have kept swimming throughout the summer as a Lanier tradition. All my children were learning to swim as they were learning to walk. They love the water to this day.
The summer of 2015 the world kept spinning. Everything had changed for us but for everyone else, life continued as normal. It was important that my children kept to their life long routines. Therefore summer swim was a go for all three of them.
The fact that Josiah swam with the swim team that summer is still an inspiration to me. A child who could swim like a fish and had the ribbons to prove it, humbled himself to push to the max what his broken body would allow. He was about doing his part so that when he defeated cancer he would be ready to get back into the winners circle.
He knew he could not compete in a race that summer. He could barely lift his left elbow out of the water, and he could barely kick his left foot to propel his body. Yet he did not waver and he persisted.
Stevie, a high school swimmer, stayed with him to encourage and watch over Josiah.
Josiah here defines power. He captured a powerful vision of a successful future that propelled him through swimming laps when half his body would not cooperate.
Determination. Diligence. Grit.
The power Josiah had gave him the strength to persevere stroke by stroke. Even though he would swim with the team in a separate lane, he was faithful to rise early and jump in the same frigid water. He would not swim in competition. But he swam with his friends to prepare the team for competition.
The video runs in my mind like the old Nike commercials, “Just do it!”. He is one of the inspirational stories of people who press on against great odds that challenge us to go further, farther, and faster. But he is not a story or a video, he is my son.
But I too remember the tears. I remember a rage. I remember the falls.
I am inspired by his fortitude and strength. But please remember, life is more than the heights of victory and the depths of defeat. Life is today. Today is tough. Focus on today.
Step up.
Move forward.
One more stroke.
Make one more good decision.
Breath.
Today.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
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