This is post fourteen in the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. Read them all!

How cold was it? Well, this picture was taken the morning before the big swing. I was in a sweat lodge for hours before, and after each round we would run out into the water and then come right back into the little canvas hut for another round of chanting and purification.

After the fourth round, cohort-in-crazy Michelle and I took off for the rope swing. It was an effort because the last swingers (probably the year before) caught the rope in a tree branch. After some monkeying we dislodged it and took off. Just a few weeks earlier there was ice in the water. It still felt that way.

I felt like I was crashing through ice rather than water, and the rope deposited me farther out that I estimated. The swim back was brief and daunting as I tried to suck in air against the shivers. The only thing as amazing as that experience was seeing Michelle swing out after me, in the buff, and resurface with the same look of shock and excitement that I felt.