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Yesterday Beach and I loaded up a bag and we biked to the pool.  I said it was a long awaited return and I meant it.

The pool used to be the heart of our homeschooling life.



We swam almost daily.  There was something so decadent about swimming in the middle of the day. About walking (or biking) to the pool rain or shine.  Cutting past the green edge of the elementary school where Beach was supposed to go. 

 
The school that withdrawing from set her heart free.  

In the mornings we would read in my bed and do math in the kitchen. Cover a chapter of history or science then hit the pool.

Return home with wet hair to sip hot chocolate.  Eat lunch with chlorine kissed skin.  Fall into the afternoon with the memory of cutting through the water. 

Beach took swim lessons and when she out grew those she joined swim team. I spent hours sitting cross legged on the benches lesson planning while she swam.  But as gymnastics grew it crowded out pool time.  First to go was swim team.  Then the daily swim became a weekly thing and then it disappeared. 

The last few years I have tried to get her return to the pool.  Penciled in pool time into our schedule and yet it was never a good time for her.   

So I respectfully gave up.  Then suddenly out of the blue Beach announced she wanted to be a triathlete.

The swim bag, gym bag days <3

Maybe not out of the blue, more out of injury. Her hamstring injury isn't improving or if it is, it is healing incredibly slowly (as they do).  I think it has given her a chance to look ahead.  To look past her life as a gymnast and down the road to her life post gymnastics.

A couple of years ago she saw a news clip on young marathoners.  At the time she announced that was what she was going to do when she was done doing gymnastics. 

It reminded me of when she was 3 and asked to get her ears pierced.  I told her she had wait until she was 6.  She never asked again.  Not a word until the morning of her 6th birthday when she asked, so when are we going?  Going where?  You know, to get my ears pierced.

I'm not sure where or when she hit on the idea of the triathlon but it makes a lot of sense for her.
   
She has always loved the water.  She feels safe there.  She feels free.  And the biking part, my god she loves biking!

For now we have found 2 days, based on her gym load, that she is willing to swim; Mondays and Thursdays.

After swimming yesterday we rode home with wet hair. Down 10th West the way we used to.  We made smoothies and popped popcorn. She iced while we listened to an audio book in my bed. 

It felt like it used to feel before gymnastics turned the tide but I know it isn't that.  She isn't moving back, she is moving forward.