Waves of Family

That night in my room, I lay on the floor staring up into the dark corners of my ceiling, wondering what it would be like.

To breathe through my skin instead of lungs? Not even being able to see? How strange. And yet, not very different from life already is. We all live our lives as best we can-and sometimes that's with eyes closed, or heads bowed, or minds full of other things.

Sometimes we don't pay attention because paying too much attention makes us feel trapped by fear and sadness, or grief and anger.

So maybe swimming underwater is just another way to keep your head down-but without the pressure of water around your ears making sounds louder. Or more important than they are. Maybe it was a good thing. A gift. A new skill to learn and practice over and over until you got used to it. And then, one day, it happened. You'd look out across an ocean and know you could see the fish swimming through the greenest, deepest part of it. Or the birds swooping high overhead.