Swimming Pool

So, the owners left for India, the workers were released to their homeland, Lana with the son drove off to older sister in Austria on weekends, and our heroine was left alone in a huge estate.

The weather in Bavaria was still warm, the same as in summer at home, in the cool country where Natalie lived.

If you, reader, remember, there was a fifteen-meter swimming pool in the estate. The water in it, even in the hottest weather, was cool and invigorating, but still Natalie could not deny herself the pleasure of swimming for a few minutes in the middle of a sunny working day, usually before lunch or an hour after.

On the very first evening of the owners' departure, the idea of swimming in the pool in Eva's bathing suit came into her head (or somewhere else, who knows them, these women).

There was not a soul in the estate. From the neighboring houses, which were at a decent distance, the pool was covered with dense crowns of tall trees. In addition, the sun has already leaned towards the horizon, throwing a light evening veil over the estate. And no sound came from the neighboring yards. Looks like the neighbors also spent their weekends outside the house.

“Oh well, no one will see me!- Natalie assured herself. - If only birds in the sky ..."
Although at this evening hour the birds have already settled down in their nests.

She put on a robe, took a towel and got outside.

To swim in an open water naked, even if there is no one nearby, and to enjoy swimming - for this, reader, you need courage. Don't believe me? Try it yourself!

But the measure of pleasure when cool water touches the skin, nowhere covered by anything, is truly indescribable.

Above there was only the sky, all around was only water and silent trees. A powerful charge of vivacity and energy, returning the soul to its origins, filled Natalie's body with strength and bliss.

We are much more connected with our body than we think, and the body means much more than it is customary to think about it.

It just so happened that the entire European Christian civilization teaches man to separate from the body, to oppress it, while the true purpose of the body is to be an instrument of the spirit in physical world. Knowing, feeling and understanding own body, its true needs and requirements, you provide yourself not only beauty, youth, health and longevity, but also a qualitatively different perception of life.

Shall I tell you that Natalie thought about all these things while swimming in the pool?

No, reader, she simply enjoyed herself, and the degree of pleasure turned out to be so acute and all-embracing that it did not leave room for any other feelings and reflections...

When Natalie returned home, the sun had already hidden behind the treetops, the garden was half-dark, but her soul was singing, and her body, leaving all its ailments and worries in the cool water, vibrated with every cell, as if it had just been born anew.

Nellie was not there to say: "How beautiful you are!" But Natalie didn't have to be said about it. If at other moments of her life she felt like a beautiful woman and rejoiced in her beauty, then that evening she seemed to float above the ground in the garden, without touching the grass... like a goddess.

And at that moment, in the middle of the garden, in the mysterious light of the stars, Natalie suddenly discovered an amazing truth. She realized what was the reason of her unusual craving for communication with nature.

Just as her body is the manifestation and instrument of the soul in the physical world, so Nature is the Body of God. This insight was like a fireworks that flashed in the night. Natalie laughed joyfully and rushed to the house.

Insight, night swimming, quiet splash of water, fireworks, running trough the garden...

And soon she was already sleeping peacefully, and she dreamed beautiful vivid dreams.

from the novel "Natalie: The Art of Living".

published