With you Rachel

~ Live & Learn

The water in the creek is often surprisingly warm. After the first shock, it is easy to stay in. It is perhaps thirty metres long and I swim fast and methodically up and down. I don’t like to talk or mess around when I’m swimming; or it might be more accurate to say that I can’t imagine being able to mess around, can’t imagine being free from my own rules and ambitions, and more accurate still to say that I’m frightened of what might happen if I were. Instead I set myself a target and count the lengths. My husband dives in and swims for a little while, slowly, without particular direction. Then he turns over and lies on his back and floats, looking at the sky.

~ Rachel Cusk, in Coventry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux. September 16, 2019)

Note: Photo Gif via poppins-me

34 thoughts on “With you Rachel”

      1. You’re right. BUT the funny thing is that I fought so much in my life to get to my goals that it STILL happens that I count my length, w/o wanting to or even against my inner self. I have one sister who is so highly competitive that when I phone her, she MUST tell me the number of lengths she swam, or the no of km she rode her bike or the length of time she power-walked. The rest of the family just shakes their head…. floating is IT.
        Beautiful pairing, needs to be said once again 😉

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply

  7. I should not have read this so early in the morning — nor the comments. Everyone is so ‘with’ the swimming metaphor but me…I’m usually no where NEAR the water. Don’t worry. I’ll eventually get into the water…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Claudia; don’t feel bad please. Hero Husband has grown up next to a very large lake (Léman, Switzerland), nearly drowned twice (once pushed by a friend, and once he fainted, wd you believe it) and what did I do when he visited at Lake Zurich? Right, I pushed him from a low stone wall into the lake and nearly drowned again….. So, just go slowly in, put the water on and over your body, take a deep breath and dip in – and FLOAT! gOOD LUCK!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  8. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    Swimming … ‘ I don’t like to talk or mess around when I’m swimming; or it might be more accurate to say that I can’t imagine being able to mess around, can’t imagine being free from my own rules and ambitions, and more accurate still to say that I’m frightened of what might happen if I were. Instead I set myself a target and count the lengths.’ … Rachel Cusk, in Coventry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux. September 16, 2019).

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply