Just Keep Swimming

                              
I have made it very clear I'm not a technocrat when it comes to swimming but what I saw this morning, alone in my kitchen with nothing but the light from my laptop and the life-saving grace of my coffee was magnificent.
 

I can't help it but when you become a parent everything is colored by that perspective.  Even Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte.  I thought of my daughters who have been working so hard at their swim lessons.  They're trying to perfect breaststroke which I realize with all the current events, is ironic and perhaps impossible.  They received their report cards for the end of the session.  The comments were identical:  "Good job!  Remember kick out and don't flutter!  Your pull is really good!"   Hahahahahaha. (Oh, my sides hurt from laughing.  Things you don't write on the report card of a kid whose mom is a swim blogger. )


I think about the lessons we parents try desperately to instill in our children.  Work hard.  Be nice to others. Be good to yourself.  Don't cheat.  Flush.  All the things we think will help our kids grow to be somewhat functioning adults.  Traits perhaps we admire in ourselves or wish we could do better with.  Mistakes we made we don't want to see them make.  There could be blood on the floor due to our efforts, we just want our kids to be happy.  Missy Franklin's ginormous brace-face smile and Ryan's fist pump and internal/external exclamation of "jeah" represents the culmination of all these things we try so hard to instill in our kids.   They represent the best of the best.  The exemplary example of what can be.

It says to me, as a parent, "keep going."  The end result may not be a gold medal or a world record but we all try our best every day.  Some days something monumental happens.  Some days it's a small victory.  Some days you just feel like you're sinking.  The world may celebrate with you or you may pat yourself on the back in solitude.  All achievements are magnificent in their own way.   What's important is that you just keep swimming.