Dive in…It’s summer for crying out loud.

Spent yesterday at the pool with sister, children and nephews. We sat in sun, ate and swam around.

Then as kids inevitably do — they gravitated to the diving board.

And as children inevitably do, they called for their parents to join them.

My sister patiently stood at side of pool instructing my daughter and son on how to dive. Hands pointed, bend over toward water, keep bending and leave your feet on the side the last thing to go in….

Then up on the board and before long all were diving right in the water like little fish. (Well, little diving fish.)

But darn them, they kept calling for this mom to get on the board. I had already swam, already dried off, was taking all the pictures for crying out loud. With my contacts in…how could I dive?

Do you remember summer as a child, hours and hours – jumping off the board, swimming to the side, climbing out, waiting in line, wriggling around with all the other damp children and doing it all over again.

I remembered. So I climbed up, walked up to the edge just to jump in (for I had my contacts in, right?). The water looked so far down. I jumped up and down a few times. By then my sister was laughing and people all around the pool were staring at this crazy woman standing up on the board. Hoards of children in line getting restless so I jumped up, closed my eyes and dove in…

I made it in pretty good. Could tell my legs weren’t perfectly together, though more vertical than not. Lots of memories came flooding back quickly, like how if you dive in a two piece your bottoms have a tendency to pull down — then you immediately think of the lifeguard perched there…Oh, just like I was 12.

Kind of.

Go find a diving board this summer. No matter your age dive into the pool. Dive into life. It’s summer for crying out loud.

Have a great day.