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A little story about perseverance

Yesterday morning, as part of my efforts to record my daily swims, I took my daughter’s waterproof camera so that my audience could share the experience with me. I had just pressed the video record button and submerged myself when I promptly dropped the camera and wasn’t quick enough to catch it. After ten minutes of freezing cold and unsuccessful scrabbling in the murky depths I gave up and worked on my excuse for why my daughter no longer had access to her Normandy Trip photos.

Giving up does not sit easily with me so about two hours later I donned my wellies and returned to the scene of the crime at low tide only to realise how completely different the vast seascape is when it becomes land. I looked where I thought I’d dropped it but without success. Mrs Jones took over the search baton but was also unable to locate the bright orange gadget. Realising at 8pm last night that it was low tide once again, I roused myself for ‘one final look’. With an internal monologue on repeat, ‘Just one more minute and then I’ll go; it would be a miracle if I found it,’ I was quite literally about to leave when I had an overwhelming sense that I was close. And suddenly, there it was, sitting half-concealed by a strand of seaweed but also fairly visible with the screen glistening in the dusky sun and through the clear water. Amazing. And oddly, although it was rather annoying yesterday, I am pleased the episode happened because it has reinforced the notion that if one keeps believing then good things result; miracles do happen!