Today, I Swam

Today, I Swam

I drifted through nature’s veins today. I floated along without a preoccupation in the world - it was as if all fear, or sorrow had washed away in her calming blood. The sirens constantly screaming in my head were silenced and for once, it was just quiet. I could hear my own heartbeat, something I hadn’t heard in quite some time.

There were three canoes on her arms; my father accompanied me in ours. We both just sat and stared at the strange birds soaring in the sky. They screeched their peculiar songs while they dove at the sea searching for the cause of ripples in her static demeanour. Directly under this waterline, I could watch her hair dance. There were many green strands in the river.; it almost took her shape. I plunged my paddle into her abyss and the seaweed separated as if it had accepted me.

We stopped for lunch. We drove our boats into a tiny island housing a charred pile of sticks and stones. As I exited the craft, I searched for a spot to sit on this place. That’s when I noticed the ground was flattened, as if it had been sat on by hundreds of others before me. I joined them in this transcendent moment where we all ate our lunches with our families - where everything was just right, if only for a moment.

We kept hitting rocks. At times, the water level was very low - so low in fact, that we could see her rocky bottom. Though the water was unobscured, and we could see perfectly what laid ahead, we still hit rocks. For a moment I had wondered why we kept smacking into them, and that’s when I realized, it was fun to collide with their solid exteriors. There was no other way of putting this. It was surely enjoyable to rock our proverbial boat. Without these brief moments of uncertainty, the boat ride would have been mundane.

It All Started To Make Sense

It All Started To Make Sense

The grass was so green that day, relatively so. I couldn’t help but marvel in the moment as the strands danced and danced for what seemed like an eternity. There was the blue sky, being caressed by the over-zealous, blinding sun. It lit up everything everywhere, pushing the blue towards the earth. I was swimming with them down my neighbourhood streets- her hair floating in the wind.

We came to that field- that empty field. It was a comforting desolation. It was telling me that even in loneliness, things would be okay. You can still exist without others. And we entered the field- rather it embraced us, enveloping me in something I had never felt. In the distance, through the dried hairs of the Earth, we were drawn to a tumour - a strong billowing microcosm of faded life; the statue of the eroded modern-lifestyle. This mound, composed of rusted bed springs, copper wires, deflated tires, dried mud, and weeds, was erected as a testament to a fleeting existence forever gone.

And we stood on top of this heap, and we stared into the sky, and the trees. It was the moment I had been waiting for my whole entire life. It was the moment I knew that everything in my life was going to be alright, even though I knew that one day I was going to die.

I felt the moment in my whole entire body, and I knew what the meaning of my life was. It isn’t a complicated goal-oriented existence but instead a series of events simply linking these perfect moments together. It all made sense. I finally had a reason to enjoy my waking existence.

I would get out of bed for her milky chi’s, or for those moments where my would fingers dance. I open my eyes for the possibility of indulging in a quart of sweet cream with millions of spoons. I dress myself everyday hoping to be greeted by the sweet scent of midnight air while I hazily ride my bike. It’s these perfect moments, where everything is just so simple, that remind me that everything is going to be just fine.