Day 162 The Pool Beggar

June 17, 2015
Day 162

I am a snake on a rock soaking up heat to warm my body during the summer months. I love the summer's heat. I also love water just as much. Summer heat and water are a combination that brings me life. In fact my name, Lynne, means dweller by the pool. Guess what my husband's name, Lynn, means? It means pool. I am Lynn's dweller.

Growing up, we never had a pool membership. Yes, I was disappointed and maybe even a little bitter. Therefore, riding bike past backyard pools was my job. It was with the hope that they would have pity for a hot biker pedaling towards heat exhaustion. So, this meant frequent flybys because they were never outside. These pools were so rarely used it killed me. They were dream come trues and nobody used them!

Swimming is free movement, daydreaming, slicing through the water. Do you want to front somersault or back somersault or dolphin down? Do it, your'e in wonderful buoyant water. Water gives you options land never will. And knowing how to swim gives you fins to go where non swimmers do not dare. Never did I tire of swimming. I was always the first one in and the last one out.

My personality as a child was that of a mini-adult minus the tact, wisdom, or timing. I was in your face relentlessly asking you questions, talking a tin ear off of you, playing the piano loud enough for the next town over to hear, or cartwheeling into rooms assuming you wanted to see a routine. I never once thought about asking you if I could do any of these things, my self-confidence was intact and I just assumed you were waiting for me to entertain you. So, you either loved Lynne Beth Treichler or you endured her. My large personality took me years to fit into and some folks just didn't have the patience.

In one of the neighborhoods I lived, there was a family who had another water option for the summer-a pool membership. I could hardly handle this. To be a member of a local pool, to me, was a step up into extreme wealth. This killed me. I would watch them pack their coolers, throw pool paraphernalia in their car and run back to get the lotion. How did I see this? I might have been positioned right in their personal space zone. But hey, a little girl's gotta see what a little girl's gotta see.

One day it happened, they invited me. I was actually going to a pool, their pool, a membership pool. More than likely the invitation was coerced but sometimes the lack of options encourages desperate actions. When a child is offered something they tend not to hem and haw, they just say yes. Sometimes they even grab at it before its fully given. Is that what Christ is referring to when He tells us to come to Him like a child? Just a thought.

I was at the pool, not minding my own business, relentlessly teasing the boy. I thought we were having fun. Emphasis on "I thought."  I appeared out of nowhere to hear the son speaking with his mother. "Mom, why did we bring her?"

Why did we bring her? Words have a way of slicing and dicing. And these words kicked me into reality. I had so much to learn about "working the crowd."  I remember thinking different things. One was pure embarrassment, the other was irritation-what a Debbie Downer. However, I did learn something that day. If you want to go to the pool, as bad as I did, you better mind myself and try not to pester the family who gave you the invite.