Bliss is floating gently in a pool of water. I could always float. As a child I loved to splash around in the waves down the shore in NJ. I would float and turn somersault but couldn’t swim. The Atlantic Ocean was pleasantly warm, but mostly rough.

I finally learned to swim in a pool in Florida! A joyous, exhilarating accomplishment! And my daughters, ages 11 and 13 – certified Junior Life Guards – taught me to dive thusly: one would push me off the diving board, the other was in the pool prepared to save me if I foundered. Diving is heavenly.

When I lived in Dallas, my condominium had a pool. I was the first swimmer of the season and the last.

My swimming is graceless, arrhythmic and clumsy – but I love it. I can swim until I’m tired – a splendid warm weariness, then flip on my back and subside into a sensuous float. And I am suspended as though I were on a cloud! Pure bliss.

Here I am the day after!