I read an article in the newspaper this morning regarding persons who have fallen into swimming pools or other areas of water, and remained under water long enough to be life threatening or possibly fatal.

We cheer whenever we see the recovered party being worked on by medics, suddenly began coughing, spitting and sometimes crying, indicating they were one of the lucky ones to be brought back to the state of living. If that could only be true but alas, in reality only a very few can lay claim to being returned to the point of where they had died, so as to continue on with their lives as if nothing had ever happened.

The majority of persons being returned to the state of living from the underwater syndrome are, in actuality just beginning to follow the path of massive problems varying from brain damage due to the lack of oxygen while under the water or to whatever restricted their airflow which in itself controls every part of your body, to an agonizing death. I know personally how the victims felt while under the water screaming in their minds for help knowing they were out of air and their panic is causing confusion which creates them to lose all sense of direction., sometimes resulting in death. I personally experienced a situation very similar to the above information as the following story will explain…….

I can’t remember the exact date or my age but I believe I was seven or eight, making it some where around 1940-41. We kids must have done something nice or right as mom and dad were taking all eight of us on a picnic over to Twin lakes, something that doesn’t happen too often. I don’t know if it’s because we are rotten kids or they just didn’t like picnics , but I’m real excited myself and I’m sure the others are too.

At Twin Lakes I get to float around on my own inner tube and it makes me feel so important, and I fantasize that the tube is my fighter plane and I’m out on a mission looking for an enemy . I’m sure the others have their own ideas while they are floating around or swimming , but I can sure have fun by my self with no problem. Mom and dad

didn’t get into the water with the rest of us, they just stayed on the beach, I suppose to protect the picnic basket and maybe dad nipped a beer or two while mom watched her flock.

It was sure a beautiful day though, I don’t think you could have ordered anything nicer out of a magazine . It was the bluest blue sky I’d had ever seen and there was just the gentlest breeze drifting across the water, creating a light chill making you stay under the water so as to keep warm, even though it was rather warm outside. I’m not sure if mom and dad noticed it as I did or the other people who were on the beach by the folks.

Everyone seemed to go their own way doing their own thing leaving me all alone, but than that wasn’t anything new as I’m usually in that mode most of the time anyway. They did manage to leave me an inner tube which I jumped onto and paddled away going out on one of my fantasies where I was a pilot again. I sure love flying, I think. I spotted one of those buoys floating out there just bobbing around doing nothing, just waiting for a boat to show up so they could stop them from coming in too close to land where the water is too shallow . I saw it as an island where the enemy could be hiding so I paddled towards it for my own reasons.

Although it was only about ten feet away from me , it took me quite a while to get there as I was not to good at this boat paddling thing. Butt paddling was another thing and that I was an expert at as I sure got my share of them from mom and even some of my teachers too .Finally arriving at this lonely island, I abandoned my inner tube and climbed aboard to investigate to see if there was anyone there besides my self. A quick check told me I was the islands only occupant at this time. My attention span regarding this as an island faded quickly and I suddenly became interested in the water beneath the buoy as it looked crystal clear and it appeared to only be a short distance between the buoy and the bottom of the lake at that point.

I thought to my self I wonder how deep it really is and as it doesn’t look that deep, I think I’ll go down and see for myself. Glancing around to see where every one else was and also to see if anyone knew where I was, I noticed the inner tube had drifted away from the buoy, I had forgotten to tie it to one of the bars on the buoy. Oh well I don’t need it right this moment anyway. The more I thought about it the more excited I became about taking the dive to the bottom to touch the mud. I needed something to prove to myself that I could do at least one thing without failing. I hated to be a total flop at every thing I tried.

I gave the area around the buoy one more quick visual look to see if anyone would see me dive off the buoy into the still water. Actually it turned into a painful belly flop which I had hoped no one saw. The water appeared so clear that it was easy for me to see straight to the bottom giving me a false sense of security. Little did I realize what problems were waiting for me underwater . Diving from the buoy with my lungs full of oxygen I charged forwards by way of the powerful strokes of my arms pulling my frame through the water towards the bottom which looked so peaceful at this time.

I continued the powerful strokes of my arms pulling me closer and closer to my objective , only to realize that I was further away from the bottom than I had realized The air supply in my lungs was beginning to deplete and fear began to edge it’s way into my mind. I knew the right thing for me to do would be to forget about touching the bottom and return to the surface before my air supply was gone. I knew I wouldn’t do that as I was just inches from the bottom and I just had to do it to prove to everybody I could do it.

I didn’t want to admit defeat so I pulled a few more strokes in the downward direction. After that failed to produce what I had tried for and missed, I ceased the paddling action and began to roll in the water , forwards and sideways, causing me to get disorientated .That clear water I had commented on before now appeared to look murky indicating I was close to the bottom , which tended to please my thinking as I knew I could do it.

I now realized my oxygen appeared to be gone and here I was not knowing if I’d make it back up to the surface so I could see my mom and dad or anyone else for that matter. As I had been churning in the water and being close to the bottom like I was , every thing was impossible to see through because of the muddy water causing me to lose my sense of direction and not know which was up.

Fear in now rampant through my entire body and my lungs are searching my body for fresh oxygen so it can continue to do what it’s suppose to be doing, keeping me alive. I had but a split second to make a decision to decide what to do next, as that decision apparently will be the last one I’ll ever make if I’m wrong . My eyes are now wide open searching for that sliver of light that will lead me home, but it was no where to be found. My lips and my nose are pinched tightly to prevent any water from entering my body although it’s getting extremely difficult to maintain that vigilance.

My chest area is one massive flame screaming for help from anyone who could offer any kind of relief from this terrible sensation . Oh my God I’m so afraid, I’m terrified of what is to come. What do I do, What do I do, I haven’t the faintest idea which way is up or which way is down, I am in limbo. Suddenly the thought of our creator entered my mind, this causing me to think it must be close to my recall time and my name is nearing the top of the list. Were told this would be the most joyous time for us to go to meet our creator in spirit and that nothing else in this materialist world could ever come close to matching this wonderful feeling

As beautiful as that all sounded, I didn’t want to go ,at least at this time now. I asked God to please show me the way back home to my mom and dad. With the final iota of energy my dying body possessed I pushed forward hoping I took the right road. I knew the water couldn’t be over ten feet deep at this spot but it seemed to go on forever. My arms just radiated pain and felt like lead weights that were getting heavier with each movement I attempted.

I don’t know if I’m even moving any more although I still force my arms to reach above my head as I fruitlessly attempt to try once more to move my body forwards by pulling those sheets of pure pain, my arms, down once more. My eyes which are now burning internally are at their widest searching oh so frantically for anything that would or could help me in this instant of pure hell, but like before, I saw nothing

“Oh my God” I shouted to my inner self , “Where is that damned surface it’s got to be some where close. Each stroke I attempted to force my arms to try, moved slower and slower until my mind finally told me, that was the last one that is available to you. My arms now dropped down below me like the lead weights they were, and my body became just another floating piece of debris in the water way. My mind is trying to prepare me for the inevitable by insisting that I shouldn’t fight it any more. I should just relax and lay back, waiting for the Lords hand to reach down and gently cradle me in his arms as he return me back to his home where all the problems of this world would bother me no more.

Knowing that I failed again as usual, I began to think that maybe this would be the best way for things to end as I sure didn’t do anything out standing on this world to be proud of or to be remembered for . It seemed immediately just after I had accepted the fact to relax that I could feel myself beginning to get drowsy and all I wanted to do was go to sleep . I felt so tired and all those aches and pains that bothered me before, are now gone, I feel wonderful and wondered why I fought it so hard to stay alive when this is really what I’ve always wanted.

As if to confuse my direction of thought, the brightest beam of light I had ever seen, Pierced the water above me and flow into my entire body through my water weakened eyes. My body throbbed as if it had just received a fully charged battery jump and suddenly I knew that every thing was going to be okay. I felt fully refreshed and full of power that I knew that I could propel myself anywhere I wanted to go. I knew that the direction of up was above me. and that’s exactly where I was going to go. My arms accepted the command to pull me up to the surface and there was no hesitation to perform the act. I can’t explain how I managed to exist for so long without air but when I broke through the surface, I took the deepest breath that a man could be allowed and yelled joyously “Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord” at the top of my lungs. I really thought I had exited so fast that I actually stood on top of the water for an instant before dropping back into a normal float. My whole body hurt so bad that when I took that first breath, I wasn’t sure I wanted to take another. I don’t know if it really hurt that much or that I hated to lose out on that deal God had going for me just a few short seconds ago.

I was at the base of the buoy and wasn’t sure if anyone had realized what had just happened to me as no one seemed alarmed or even came out to the buoy where I now am. I have no idea of how much time I actually spent under water although it appeared to last an eternity to me. I don’t know why I was rejected from Gods domain but then again it was another failure for me. Of course maybe God saw something in me that no mere mortal observed, and I was given another chance to fulfill the contract I took on at my birth.