To Stop Pushing Against and, Instead, to Go With

Yesterday, for only a minute or two, I stopped pushing against the current.  I simply pulled my arms to my side, extended my legs, and let the ocean current pull me slowly across the reef.  I was not so much snorkeling as floating in the water.

Below me, Christmas ornament fish drifted by; some gathered into dart and run schools that exploded like silent fireworks as I neared them.  Just as I wafted over a slightly deeper shelf, I noticed my friend Larry beside me.  And then I noticed the sea turtle.

The turtle slowly drifted right up to us.  Either of us could have reached out to touch the turtle.  At one point, I lifted Larry’s diving fin so that the two of them would not touch.  For a minute or two more, the turtle and I drifted along together across the reef.  The sunlight shimmered in the water around us as schools of fish sifted through.

For that brief time, I was without weight, without fully composed thought.  I was going with…

--Mitchell Hegman