Swim harder...

Ever see something that moves your heart with compassion?

I'm mean, truly.

Happens to me once a month or so. Yesterday it happened at the pool. I was there swimming my laps--in full-training mode for my second Olympic Distance Triathlon this summer and I'm bound and determined to improve my time, in fact, one of my 2014 'goals' is to drop the time by 10 minutes, which is near impossible--and was then going to meet my daughters after for some 'swim time with daddy'.

While I was in the pool I didn't notice anything; that's one of the things I like best about swimming laps, the near meditative state that comes with it. It was the 'after' that nearly un-did me.

At the top of the hour, as I stood in the pool waiting for my girls, the disabled babies started coming in. I don't know if it's a designated 'hour' for them or if it just happened that way. One after the other, in came these sweet young things, dragging crippled limbs, hands on walkers, ears plugged, goggles in place, over-large ears sticking out like wings in some cases.

I almost started crying.

Then I saw their parents.

Oh my. See, I'm a parent and I know what 'exhausted' looks like. These parents look like a whole other kind of exhausted. These parents make my exhausted look like a pale, wimpy, miserable misrepresentation of the word. I had to turn away so my tears wouldn't cause a scene.

If you have kids you know what I'm talking about. For nine months you're filled with hope and excitement about this baby who's on its way. You're thrilled about what the future might hold for them. The hope of it seems endless.

Then they're born with legs that don't work or water on the brain or a weak heart or ears that can't hear or eyes that can't see.

Dear Jesus.

The thought of their dreams crashing down, and of the season that must have followed where they had to re-evaluate the entirety of what they thought their life was going to be. It's enough to make you sick, repentant, and move you to compassion.

Hail to their perseverance! Hail to their toughness! Hail to their determination to build a life in the midst of difficulty. Hail to the fact that they're on their feet bringing their 'broken' babies to swim class! And--God help me to never laze another day away--HAIL to the babies themselves who were KILLING it in swim class, jumping and swimming and dunking their faces in the water and learning their strokes!

Todd, your life is not difficult.

Reader, yours probably 'aint as bad as you thought, either.

Hail, HAIL to those parents and their babies who taught me a lesson yesterday!

Swim harder.

T