Some of us do and some of us don't.

It is one hundred degrees on the island and it’s the first week of September! This is unheard of ‘round these parts, yet creates a blessed day for a dip.

My friend Alec and I arrive eager for relief from the heat. We walk down the path sprinkled in dried pine needles, and down over the bank. In some places the roots of the trees have grown across the path creating steps, as if Mother Nature were helping us to reach the water. We plop our things down and undress to our swim clothes.

Alec wades in first, I find myself tip toeing around the waters edge, barely wetting my feet. Slowing I step, cautiously and deliberate, timid to move forward.

Eventually I lunge ahead and swim into the refreshingly cool spring feed lake; finally, the relief I was seeking. We play around for a while under the warmth of the fiery sun, in this unusually late summer’s heat.

Alec then decides he will swim across the width of Lake Wood; me on the other hand, I retreat and sit lakeside on a rock watching. I watch him as he ventures, he appears as just a dot floating on the water. The sun still high, its reflection glimmers. I lose sight of him as he disappears into the cast shadows, but spot him once more as he climbs up on the rocks, on the other side. He too sits and peers across.

I bath in the sun and blow bubbles. At that moment, I recognized all the elements present. I sit upon the earth, the sun and its fire, the water and its depth, and the breeze that carries these bubbles.

I look across the lake and think of summer camp. In the morning all the cabins would line up. There was a series of morning rituals that went on, one being to yell across the lake in unison, “Gooooood mornnnning West Side!” To the boys side of the lake; and they would respond in unison, “Goooooood mornnnnnning East Side!” This caused my thoughts to wander. To think of boys and girls, day and night, the good and the bad, the duality of this world, and its constant companionships.

The more time spent in the woods, with Mother Nature, and the elements, the more you feel filled with insight and inspiration. Possessing the ability to draw in that positive energy and channel it and manifest it in your life is the tricky part.

I watch Alec submerge for the trek back across. That’s quite a commitment to swim across unknown waters, knowing that you have to swim back. I think about the commitments I make in my life. The time is spend in limbo, deliberating. I acknowledge my approach in the water, timid and cautious.

Forthcoming Alec arrives. Breathless he sits and rests.

The sun has moved across Lake Wood and has begun to fall behind the tree line. I want to jump before the warmth disappears. I have to jump today. Alec collects himself, we walked up bank to the bluffs.

I stand on the edge and peer into the deep water. My red hair and my freckles are glowing, illuminated by the sun. I raise my arms to embrace my choice, and push off into the air. A short free fall until I am submerged once more in the water. I rise to the surface and take a deep breath.

I tread water for a while, looking back up at my friend as he still stands peering in. He stood for so long, till finally he just sat down on the ledge. So I swam in. He couldn’t bring him self to do it. He just couldn’t.

The sun is well hidden by the trees as this point. I climbed back up to jump another round. I stand still once more with my arms raised, and push off.

It’s truly a liberating experience, to do something without delay, to move forward in an assertive and active way. These thoughts take me back to the boys on the West side, and the girls on the East. Some of us do and some of us don’t.