Today I think of swimming and being in water as a kind of freedom.  I know the water will hold me and when I get in I can let all of my worries and my body be held by a force that’s not me. I can float away.  

But for my almost 8 month old, swimming definitely doesn’t feel like freedom.  This babe doesn’t know the water will do work yet.  Swimming feels scary to my young one.  There is learning still yet to be done. 

Naps are another space I have come to enjoy that I notoriously didn’t in my first 18 years of life.  As a toddler I went around interviewing every relative I could – do you like naps Aunty?  Do you like naps, Uncle? What are your thoughts on Naps Grandad?  I was incredulous when I heard their answers.  Naps are great! 

Naps are great … now.  Naps are great now that I trust I’ll wake up.  Naps are great now when I know life is waiting for me when my body has rested.  Naps are especially great when someone greets me with a cup of tea as I wake up. 

Rip Van Winkle really got hoodwinked by a nap.  He took a nap and woke up some 20 years later!  But the thing is – would his nap really have been that long if his people knew where to look for him? 

Freedom can be felt where we trust our surroundings.  

Freedom can be made when we know we have others watching over us. 

Freedom can be found here when we have learned how to “swim.”