Swimming Blessings
Swimming Blessings
“Pops.”
The doll-sized voice was barely audible over the sound of the waterfall at our pool. Pops. That has to be my favorite word especially when it is spoken by a princess. Well, not ‘a’ princess, The Princess. Only four short letters on paper but sometimes several syllables long when the Princess smiles that little smile and says… Pops.
“Pops, it’s time for my swimming blessings.”
“Your what, sweetheart?”
“My swimming blessings. You said you were going to give me swimming blessings… and I’m here!”
I suppose that at four years old or so it would be easy to confuse the word lessons with blessings. And as it turned out, blessings was the better of the two. The Princess was blessed to be taught to swim and Pops was blessed to have been the teacher. Learning to swim, like driving a car is one of those lessons in life that you never forget how and when you learned. And you never forget the one who taught you, who brought a gift of knowledge that would never run out.
As it turned out, it was I who was about to receive a ‘blessing.’
We kept the lessons short, just ten or so minutes. Little people don’t always have much span of attention. Our first lessons were spent learning to hold our breath under water. As a reward the Princess got tossed into the air, making a big splash just like her bubba. (Texan for ‘brother.’)
Bobbing to the surface our little brown granddaughter would push her hair away from those blue, blue eyes, giggle as only a little one can do, and then say, “Do me again, Pops! Do me again!”
And so we had our afternoon swimming blessings until one late afternoon the Princess seemed to have lost all sense of focus. She wanted to blow right past her blessing and head for deep water.
“Watch me, Pops! Watch me!” The little sprite with the pointy pink lips motioned for me to step aside.
“Come on, Princess! Let’s go over what we’ve been studying and then I’ll watch you do whatever you want to do. But right now we need to focus.”
“No, Pops. Watch me! Watch me!”
“Okay, fine. What is it that you want to do?”
Without a word my bullet shaped Princess dove into the water and swam right past her amazed, amused, and yes, even mystified Pops.
I don’t know how she learned to swim although in later years it was me who taught her. And hopefully her recollection will be the same. But just between you and me, I’ll remember the whole story about the day that Pops received a swimming blessing of his own. And now I will share that blessing with you: sometimes the best thing a teacher or parent or boss can do is to get out of the way and let the blessing come to you.
(488 words)
“Pops.”
The doll-sized voice was barely audible over the sound of the waterfall at our pool. Pops. That has to be my favorite word especially when it is spoken by a princess. Well, not ‘a’ princess, The Princess. Only four short letters on paper but sometimes several syllables long when the Princess smiles that little smile and says… Pops.
“Pops, it’s time for my swimming blessings.”
“Your what, sweetheart?”
“My swimming blessings. You said you were going to give me swimming blessings… and I’m here!”
I suppose that at four years old or so it would be easy to confuse the word lessons with blessings. And as it turned out, blessings was the better of the two. The Princess was blessed to be taught to swim and Pops was blessed to have been the teacher. Learning to swim, like driving a car is one of those lessons in life that you never forget how and when you learned. And you never forget the one who taught you, who brought a gift of knowledge that would never run out.
As it turned out, it was I who was about to receive a ‘blessing.’
We kept the lessons short, just ten or so minutes. Little people don’t always have much span of attention. Our first lessons were spent learning to hold our breath under water. As a reward the Princess got tossed into the air, making a big splash just like her bubba. (Texan for ‘brother.’)
Bobbing to the surface our little brown granddaughter would push her hair away from those blue, blue eyes, giggle as only a little one can do, and then say, “Do me again, Pops! Do me again!”
And so we had our afternoon swimming blessings until one late afternoon the Princess seemed to have lost all sense of focus. She wanted to blow right past her blessing and head for deep water.
“Watch me, Pops! Watch me!” The little sprite with the pointy pink lips motioned for me to step aside.
“Come on, Princess! Let’s go over what we’ve been studying and then I’ll watch you do whatever you want to do. But right now we need to focus.”
“No, Pops. Watch me! Watch me!”
“Okay, fine. What is it that you want to do?”
Without a word my bullet shaped Princess dove into the water and swam right past her amazed, amused, and yes, even mystified Pops.
I don’t know how she learned to swim although in later years it was me who taught her. And hopefully her recollection will be the same. But just between you and me, I’ll remember the whole story about the day that Pops received a swimming blessing of his own. And now I will share that blessing with you: sometimes the best thing a teacher or parent or boss can do is to get out of the way and let the blessing come to you.
(488 words)
posted by tscott | 6:14 PM
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