Jumping in the Swimming Hole (Summer Recap –> Back to the Ordinary)
My new-found summer hobby as a 40-something is an immense achievement. Not polar plunge, exactly, though reading Katherine May’s chapter on it in Wintering made me want—or at least imagine wanting—to try. But cold water swimming, again and again. I have come to know, through lived experience, that the pain of being cold fades, and the vitality, sometimes verging on ecstasy, I receive in exchange for being willing to be cold is better than not being cold.