This painting is called "When Pigs Fly" by Michael Sowa. It's one of my favorite paintings because it reminds me of jumping off the pier in Deltaville as a kid. There hasn't been much pier jumping in my adult years. There's been some floating around on the creek, but adults just don't run and leap off a perfectly good dock.
Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking, maybe what you might call soul searching. It might even been considered something of a mid life crisis or some kind of AARP-membership-on-the-horizon-turning-50 meltdown. Whatever you want to label it, I've been reflecting on life, choices I've made, choices I want to make, where I want to be and most importantly who I want to be. Because somewhere along the line I completely misplaced the person that I was and that I was on the way to becoming.
Fast forward to this Labor Day weekend. I arrived in Deltaville in the evening on Thursday.
I immediately walked to the pier. The water was high, nearly touching the boards, and in that moment I wanted to run and leap off the end like I had all those years ago as a kid. But like I said, adults just don't run and leap off a perfectly good dock.
I stood there thinking about it- my heart wanting to and my mind telling me I'm too old and that it would be ridiculous.
But something shifted in me. I kicked off my shoes, removed my socks, emptied my pockets of my car keys and cell phone and ran and leaped off the end. I savored the moment that I was flying even if only for a handful of seconds before plunging into the cool slightly salty water. Going under, touching bottom and breaking the surface again I came up laughing (It sounds more graceful than it looked I'm certain).
I jumped 3 more times half laughing half screaming while I flew over the water for about 3 seconds before gravity pulled me in and under.
In those brief minutes of throwing myself off of the pier, I began remembering who I was supposed to be. It was as if the creek water did the opposite of rebirth. I wasn't emerging as something new, but rather something I always was and forgot about along the way.
I've remembered that I'm supposed to be the girl who laughs like a loon before running and leaping off a dock into a salty creek.
