The prompt is fall.  Fall.  Fall, Autumn, my favorite time of year.  I was going to write about how lovely it is out today, how crisp the air is, how gold the light, but thought, no.  I have written about that before, and most likely will again, but I thought I would share an epic fall.  A fall that was not my finest hour.  Actually… it was quite embarrassing and a little cringe worthy.

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“Let’s Bob” Sarah grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ocean edge.  Scott and Laura were already far out, bobbing in the warm water of Maui.

Being in a swimsuit in the ocean was a HUGE reach for me.  I had searched on-line for months until I found a perfect ruched swimsuit and a black skirt that *just* covered my butt and thighs, giving me the confidence to walk around, a pasty white Alaska girl who had not seen the sun in three months.

Sarah and I wade out.  We get pretty far when the wave came at us.  “Stay with me” I cry and I cling to Sarah’s hand and turn to run.  The last thing I hear is my husband’s voice calling across the water, “Don’t run!!  DUCK UNDER!”

So of course I ran.  That wave pelted us from behind.  We fell.  We tumbled. We rolled. It was the weirdest feeling of my life.  I had no idea what was up or down.  At one point I was shot out of the water and I had a momentary glimpse of Gracie building a sandcastle on the shore before I was buffeted back down.

Eventually the wave spat us out onto wet, flat sand.  There I lay.  Face down with my modest little black skirt wrapped firmly around my neck.  Sarah was next to me.  Her cute little tube top bikini was around her waist. A couple of people on the shore clapped half-heartedly and then looked away.  Gracie never looked up.

There was sand EVERYWHERE.  Packed down my swimsuit, in my eyelids, caked to my scalp.  It did not matter how long I stood under that little shower on the beach it kept streaming out.  It was like a cheap shot… adding insult to injury.

It took two more trips to Hawaii before I would go into the water again, and only in a lagoon, and only with a boogie board to hold onto. Eventually, with slow baby-steps and a very patient husband I snorkeled!  And I snorkeled and snorkeled!  We even took a boat out to a pretty reef to snorkel.

In the end, I got beyond that epic fall….. but my family will never let me forget!