Eva Creel (Hirschau, Bayern, Germany) with Silver Lining. “Underwater above and somewhere in between. I’m a photographer. My goal is to suck a little less with every shoot.”
With one breath, I am part of it
“My leg muscle badly broken, they thought I might lose it. They had to leave the fracture open for 10 days to avoid that process. That is the reason I started the cold water treatment. At first, I didn’t like it. The cold was agony, but slowly I got used to the feeling. There is no place for fear, no place for panic, no place for mistakes. Under the ice, you need total control of the place, the time, and to trust yourself completely. When you can do all that, you can find a different world, a world so peaceful, so beautiful, endless and desolate. With one breath, I am part of it.”
Finnish freediver Johanna Nordblad holds the world record for a 50-meter dive under ice. She discovered her love for the sport through cold-water treatment while recovering from a downhill biking accident that almost took her leg. British director and photographer Ian Derry captures her taking a plunge under the Arctic ice.
T.G.I.T.: 5:00 Bell!
Summer Flashback
5:00 PM Bell!
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call: Breakfast!
Lightly child, lightly
An absurd lightness
draped itself around him;
all things were possible,
all things were manageable.
~ Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, from Half of a Yellow Sun
Credits:
- Image Source: Precious Things. Photographer: Samo Vidic. Athlete: Jorge Ferzuli
- Poem Source: the distance between two doors
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
SMWI*: Narcose
You going to say, you don’t have 12 minutes to watch this. Then you’re going to look back weeks later and find, it has never left your consciousness. Watch Narcose.
Deep water freediving exposes its practitioners to a form of narcosis, which induces several symptoms, among which a feeling of euphoria and levity that earned this phenomenon its nickname of “raptures of the deep”. The short film relates the interior journey of Guillaume Néry, the apnea world champion, during one of his deep water dives. It draws its inspiration from his physical experience and the narrative of his hallucinations.
SMWI*: Saturday Morning Work-Out Inspiration
To the rushing water speak
And if the earthly has forgotten
you, say to the still earth: I flow.
To the rushing water speak: I am.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
Credits: poem – lifeinpoetry. Image: Hungarian Soul. Rilke poem from “Sonnets to Orpheus“