For many of us right now, this is a tense, tumultuous, scary time. I know that for me, anxiety has been running at Full Tilt for quite a while now.

The water is my respite from it all. It’s the place where quiet reigns.

The place where no phones or televisions or social media posts can ramp me up, and make my stomach tie in knots. Instead, it’s the place where the knots become untangled.

It’s the place where I can be in the moment and where one stroke follows another, and where I know what is coming next and what to do.

The water is the place where all are welcome.

It is the place of calm.

It is the place where we swim through our fears. Or try to.

And it is the place where politics and war and all of the problems of the world are put aside for a moment. Okay, not always and not truly, but it is the place where we try.

The water is the place where we remember to laugh.

It is the place where problems are thought through and solutions rise because we have allowed our minds to wander.

It is the place I turn to again, and again, and again.

The water is constant.

The water is my home, and if you, like me, are having a hard time right now, I encourage you to seek its solace.