WILD SWIMMING

On the last day of summer, I met a grandmother named Dyanne sitting in the shallows of the South Fork of the Yuba River in California’s Gold Country. Dyanne’s eyes were closed and she was smiling. Sitting there like a child with sunlight dancing on the water all around her was pure bliss. The feeling that passed from Dyanne to me was why I was out her shooting. It’s why I traveled to swimming holes in Dorset, Vermont and Sundown, New York, Cypress Creek, Texas and Umpqua, Oregon. Once Dyanne and I got to talking, I learned that she’d been coming to this spot of the river since she was 5 years old. “This river isn’t just a place you visit,” she said, “it’s a friend.”

The Yuba was also friend to a group of six Malaysian girls studying at UC Davis. The sun was going down as they made their way into the water wearing hijabs. I followed with my camera, naturally, and they allowed me to share in the joy of being free in this water. Mirth spilled out of them as they leapt from granite boulders holding hands. When the sun was spent, they huddled cold but still joyous and invited me to share their pot of Nasi Lemak. Freezing, I politely declined and raced back to my car. Dyanne and the girls from Malaysia and the river’s many other friends had satisfied their primordial craving for water. Wild Swimming reminds us that interacting with nature is key to our physical and spiritual health.