My early childhood was spent in a home on a hill over looking a pond---very similar to this picture. I have not forgotten sitting and watching the pond with turtles popping to the surface and the occasional snake silently gliding across. It was a pastoral scene from a more innocent time.
Occasionally during the Thoreau inspired life on Walden Pond, we would go for a swim in that picturesque lake. The cool spring fed waters on a hot Louisiana summer day were every child's delight.
In those early years, before I could swim, I was forced to stand in the shallow waters where the water stood still. Algae and all sorts of fungi and duck weed grew in the warm shallows. You could not see below the surface of the waters. If you stood there long enough, you would slowly sink in the quick sand like mud. Feet firmly caught in the quagmire of the shallows--you were in danger of being infected with all the evils that only existed in the shallows.
But if you summoned your courage and swam into the deep middle of the pond, you found the water clear, cool, and flowing. The deep springs filling the middle of the pond created an idyllic pond brimming with life.
So it has been with life, if I am satisfied with the known and perceived safety of the shallows, over time I slowly become stuck in the mud and mire and content to live in the stagnant cesspool of malcontent. My thoughts become as shallow as where I stand.
Instead, if I am willing to take the plunge, venture into the deep, and go for the unknown, an entire new world full of life awaits. The living water flowing from the life giving springs are deep and life sustaining and my thoughts surround the eternal. Life's best is always in the deep end---from which the springs of eternal life flow.
When you go through deep waters, I will be with you
Isaiah 43:2
{{{Big Smiles}}} Love the post, Lulu. Have a beautiful day, friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Friend. May your day be blessed as well!
DeleteWhat a wonderful reflection today. Thank you so much Lulu.
ReplyDeleteI know you do not get stuck in the safety of calm waters. What with your kayaking, deep sea diving, mountaineering and crossing mountains on a wire, you really are very adventurous and take risks. I get frightened just watching the photos you publish. Well done. It's good to live life large; as you so well say on your Saturday posts.
God bless you my adventurous friend.
It sometimes takes every ounce of courage I can muster, Victor, but always worth the risk!
DeleteBlessings, My Friend!
I love this prompt, this invitation, this truth, Lulu -->'if I am willing to take the plunge, venture into the deep, and go for the unknown, an entire new world full of life awaits.'
ReplyDeleteThat's who I want to be. I just need the courage to go there ...
It all starts with one step, My Friend, and you can do that!
DeleteBlessings, Linda!
Swimming is something I can relate too as I grew up around water too (pools, ponds, ocean). I remember standing or wading in muck to get to the 'good' water in the middle. Another good life lesson.
ReplyDeleteHope your day is blessed. ~:)
I learned how to swim when my daddy threw me in the deep end of the swimming pool, Sparky. I have had a love affair with water ever since!
DeleteBlessings, Friend!
That isn't to say that they are exactly the same, either. Salt pools and fresh water pools have just as many fundamental differences as they do similarities. water beads
ReplyDelete