Tag Archives: exercise

MELANIE WINKLOSKY: Swimming

Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , ,

I thought I could learn to love running. Sidewalks, trails, beaches – relentless pounding felt like punishment.

Instead, I swim. Tepid pools, bracing Atlantic – calming water lifts me, holds me.

I dive deep, submerged in silence. Graceful. Weightless. Playful.

Released for a time from gravity.

Reminded for a time of connection.

Melanie Winklosky is a fiction writer trapped in a grant writer’s body. She lives in Swampscott, Massachusetts with her husband and dog, in what those who don’t understand call her “empty nest,” cheering on her children as they chase their dreams.

MAGGIE SEREN: Bella’s Bang on Trend on Buttermere

Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, Top Stories, , , ,

The fell, reflected in the mere, turns the morning upside down. Bella tiptoes over pebbles, breathing deeply as the water reaches her thighs. Exhales as she pushes off; an unhurried breaststroke.

They call it wild water swimming; they call it mindfulness.

Bella, 80 years young, calls it her daily dip.

Maggie Seren, who has only recently started writing flash fiction, teaches in the West Midlands but her heart resides in a coastal village in West Wales. When not writing, she enjoys walking her two chocolate labs on windswept beaches.