Learning to Swim

(A poem by someone (me) who doesn't claim to be a poet.)

When I was a young girl,
my mother tried to teach me to swim.

She held me in her arms
and helped me to float on the water.
Then she told me she would let go.

Well, I knew better than to let her do that.
My earthly experience with water had taught me
that if you don’t have something holding you up,
you sink.

I tried to explain this to her,
but my mother didn’t seem to understand this fact.
She told me to just be still and relax,
and I would float.

I felt the support of her arms leaving me,
and I kicked and struggled to stay above the water.
“See,” I told her. “You sink.”

“Just be still,” she told me. “The water will hold you up
if you let it. I have been swimming for many years
and I know these things. If you are still,
you will float.”

Eventually I tried it.
And the funny thing was, I did float.

Sometimes I remember this now,
when I don’t like the trials that come to me in this life.
(This happens often.)
Sometimes I kick and struggle to get out of them,
or at least argue that they should not be happening.
My earthly experience has taught me
that my trials are not a good situation.

But God has been God
for much longer than I have been me.
And I must have faith.
It isn't always easy.
Usually it is very hard.
But we are here to learn to walk by faith
and to trust in Someone we don't even see
but who knows that if we will,
we can float.

Be still, and know that I am God.

All material copyright 2005 Katie Parker