Cool, Clear, Water

 I learned at a very young age that water was my friend, my very good friend.  I was first introduced to a whirlpool tank at a very young age where I quickly learned I could move my limbs with no help from anyone else.  I could hardly wait to get over 3 feet tall so I could start taking swimming lessons in the pool at our school.  Finally, my third grade year I was allowed to get in and the water was fine.  I immediately stood on my own, no braces or crutches.  Being in that pool, I felt like just a normal healthy kid.  I couldn't get enough of it.  I learned to float the first day and before you knew it, I was swimming laps.  My junior high year I was making my way up the diving board, scooting to the end and off I'd go.  There, is no beauty in my dive or my swim strokes.  My bootie always seems to want to bob up into the air and I can't kick, but I love it. 
 At Crippled Children's Camp I was introduced to the lake.  I don't particularly care for the sand but I love swimming in the lake.  It was always my goal to swim across it, which I never reached but always wanted to.
At an early age at camp I was taught to row a boat.  Rowing was hard work for such a little thing but I loved it.  When I was little older, I was taught to paddle a canoe.  Now I had found my niche.  It was so easy and I loved how you could just glide across the water and get into all these little coves and streams.  I could have spent everyday of camp out in a canoe from morning till night and have to say, many times I did.  One day during swim period, we were told to take a canoe out a ways and tip it over and then try and get it flipped back up and get inside.  Now there was a challenge.  Many of you may think it's easy to flip a canoe, but really it took some rocking and rolling before we had success.  What fun that was. Oh, getting it over and back inside.  Forget about it!! 
Long about the 8th grade they brought in some sailboats.  That's another story which I will save for next time. But what I want to say before I go is that Crippled Children's Camp was instrumental in my growth at an independent disabled person.  What it taught me is that with God's help and wisdom, I could really do anything I wanted, I just had to figure out a different way to go about it.   I will forever be thankful for that lesson.  It has served me well.  So I love the water, I want to be in it or on it.  It doesn't matter.  Goodness, I even like to drink it.