The Deep End

A visualization – for the times when you need to do something that scares you:

Imagine you’re standing on a ledge above a big, blue expanse of water, looking down. The pool below you is fathomless, crystal clear, and you you can’t even tell how far down it goes. The sunlight sparkles off the surface, inviting you to join it in sinking below, as it streams through the tiny waves lapping the edge of the rocky ledge upon which you’re standing.

You curl your toes around the edge of the earth, gripping tightly to the solid ground. As you gaze down into the water, you can’t help but notice the distance between you and the deep and you anticipate the uncertainty and acceleration of your free fall before the fingers of the water reach out to catch you. Your body crashes through the surface, followed by the biting, penetrating, gripping, cold as you plunge below. The fear of the pain of the cold is enough to give you pause.

And yet you also don’t know what awaits you at the bottom. Will your feet touch smooth or jagged rocks? Will fish graze your legs as you kick back up to fresh air? If you open your eyes, what will you come face to face with? Leaving the solid ground of the ledge feels uncertain.

And so you stand above it, the water and all the possibilities it holds. You relax as the sun warms your body and you lift your face to meet it as you close your eyes. You imagine leaping off the ledge and seeing the water rush toward you. You brace yourself for the sting, relishing the feeling of the inevitability of the crash as the adrenaline tenses every muscle in your body. Excitement grips you as you finally meet the water and dive beneath, feeling the sting of the cold and letting it envelope your body.

Kicking your legs despite the lungs that scream for air, you pull yourself further in and open your eyes. Before you is an underwater world teaming with streams of light, where your feet settle onto soft sand. You revel in the clarity, in the weightlessness of your body, in the bubbles that float above you as you kick of the bottom with all of your might and your body rushes, picking up speed, toward the sunlit surface that looms above you. The water pushes you higher and higher in a blanket of bubbles and you pop through the surface and gulp in fresh air.

Relief replaces tension as your body relaxes, floating on the surface beneath the warm sun, buoyed by the water that now supports you.

A selection of prints from The Deep End are available in the Cheerful Print Shop.

More stories about the making of The Deep End can be found here: 1, 2, 3. Or subscribe to the newsletter to find out what’s happening next (you might like it if you like to read long, heartfelt essays about living a courageously creative life).