Tonight I returned to my starting place to fetch what I’d left behind.
The setting sun forced an early exit from my neighbor’s dock, and after a pit stop at home I was escorted by my dear mutt to collect my stashed belongings where I’d begun my first ever open water swim of October.
I was equally surprised during my swim at how quickly the sun sank over the horizon as I was with the heat I generated wearing my full selkie suit.
There was no after drop, no lingering chill after an hour plus long swim. There’s a reason people wear these things after all.
I reveled in the delicious freedom of warmth, hugged tight by my rubberized fleshy layer. The insulation granted me the freedom to enjoy a long swim, even as the sun sank lower and the water’s chill granted me a quiet bay to float upon.
I exited the bay as the sunset bloomed, rosy light, tinged with mandarin orange over the misty blue of the Olympics.
I paused to observe and hovered low in the silent bay, as white clouds melted silent to blue above me. The water was clear and kind, with the buoyancy of my wetsuit holding me afloat, hips high.
My breathing was steady, but the wetsuit’s buoyancy forced my midsection up and took some adjusting to. Nevertheless, the warmth it afforded me felt like a gift, and, like an early Halloween costume, I found myself excited with the prospect of fall and winter swims in comfort dressed as a selkie, head to toe.
I pulled north once outside the bay, my mind clearing as I gazed down through fuzzy water to broken shells and still rocks along my watery trail. I passed over the spot where weeks ago I watched a band of frolicking river otters swirl and churn, feasting on fish. A moment of worry caught me by surprise, as I considered the likelihood that these otters might reappear, displeased by my trespass.
To my relief the otters, like seemingly all other warm blooded creatures within miles, left me alone, perhaps tucking in to their warm dens as the light of evening seeped away without a sound.
Pink light and golden bands darkened to orange as I forced myself to turn back, awestruck by the beauty before me. My smallness in this place, the feeling of belonging yet always a stranger overpowered my thoughts. Out here, I am but a speck, no more consequential than a clutch of seaweed. But it all matters.
And this sunset, and the coming darkness and the work of preparing for the dark winter is important.
I hurried back into the bay, racing the fading light, my mind flashing forward to my sons at home, not wanting to worry them as the darkness arrived.
As I turned my head to breathe in I glimpsed golden light bouncing off the windows of homes inside the bay. Reaching my neighbors’ small floating dock, I rushed out and hurried home as the dark closed in.
With delight I recalled my dad having once said that he felt no greater peace than when he was alone on the water.
My greatest peace is in the water.
Open water.
Floating free.
Mary Swims 
💞💜🧚♂️🧜♀️💦🧜♀️🧚♂️💜💞