Unexpected “home retreat” bonus

As a Buddhist I spend a fair bit of time either on retreat or helping to lead or support retreats for others. In 2019 I attended 22 retreats, many of them for more than a week at a time. In 2016 I spent 4 months in the mountains of southern Spain, on my Ordinationa Retreat, completely separated from the rest of the world. The reason for mentioning this today is that I am currently attending a retreat which is being run from our retreat centre at Adhisthana. Obviously this is an online “home retreat”. I have attended and run a number of these since we closed the doors of the Colchester Buddhist Centre back in March 2020. They have definitely taken some getting used to but I have been working out ways in which I can experience some of the benefits of a traditional retreat experience, mainly the deepening of my meditation practice and reducing input from the world.

So although I began a new retreat on Saturday the fact that I am obviously staying at home due to national circumstances, I can still get into the sea - assuming that the retreat programme and high tide co-operate, as was the case today.

So to the swim itself. The temperature had risen slightly from 4.4 to 4.9 degrees but for some reason my body responded very differently from my last swim on Friday. My hands swelled up quite significantly, going very numb for a while after getting out of the water. This always bring an interesting experience later on when the blood does start recirculating and greeting all the nerves in those appendages. Today was no exception! No denying I am alive when this happens!!

However, that is now January officially over. I managed 11 swims this month, each of the identical “route” and measuring 250m. Some may have been slightly over due to me being swept slightly off course and not swimming directly between my markers because of strong currents, but I feel it’s simpler to just record them all as 250m. I don’t have anything sophisticated that measures the actual distance, although I am aware such devices are available. So another 2750m, identical to what I managed in November, bringing the overall total up to 8750m. This now just leaves 2 months left for the challenge although these are historically the coldest months for sea temperatures. Whatever happens…….if I’m still breathing, I’ll be ready.