Dancing in a Swamp

I have spent the last month in physical pain and in a deep, dark depression. Nothing seemed to be working to lift me out of the perilous swamp of despair. Yesterday I decided to get out of my apartment. I've been lying around in the dark for the last month. I went out and danced in an old swamp. I wore a white slip dress. I plunged my body into the dark water. There were dead trees and silver tree trunks standing like beautiful statues. Some looked like ancient hands reaching out from the black surface. I danced with my depression, my pain and my despair. The cold water soothed the burning nerve pain. The moss and slippery vines slithered over my body. I danced out my anger. I wrapped my body in the vines and slathered myself with the mud. I intertwined my torso and limbs with twisted silver branches making beautiful shapes in the wind. The murky water became the unknown. It frightened me at first. I had no idea what lurked below. I felt my courage grow stronger as I I plunged my body into the mystery below. I danced for three hours until I was too cold to stay in the water any longer. I felt so much better when I was done. Somehow it helped me accept these things I can't control. It gave me strength to continue this battle. I also discovered swamp water is great for your skin and hair. My hair is shiny and my skin is exfoliated and radiant.

Love this! What a great experience.

Fantastic, aweomse lol Words that describe how glad I am for you. Im glad you got to have that awesome experience and shared it with us so vividly.

What a wonderful description of your experience, bluematador! I find a similar comfort when I lay back in a warm pool with the water lapping my ears, in a state of weightlessness.
I must admit, in the beginning I didn't know what your post might contain. I envisioned the swamps here on the east coast with alligators, snakes and reedy grass that has lots of lurking creatures.
I'm glad you are feeling better!
Bluemountains

BM! that was a brilliant read so good it's got my toes tapping. Look, I'm practicing my dance too!

We don't have any alligators here in the Northwest. There might be some snakes but they aren't poisonous. The swamps here are filled with plant life. There are mosses, vines, and big beautiful flowers.

That really is beautiful! Thanks for sharing your expeirience, and it sounds like an intimate one at that.. So thank you! I have experiences similar. Ohhh I need that connection sometimes so badly, or at least for me I think that's what part of it is. Connection to parts of what I am that can get neglected or side railed.

You are a beautiful writer! And I'm glad there are no crocs! The swamp actually sounds amazing.

It sounds so fun, and I'm glad it worked so well for you. You did a wonderful job of describing it. I think it did you a lot of good, but I just can't help but wonder what shape the dress was in when you got out of the swamp .

I'm listening to some old bluegrass with fiddles while I research swamps. Historically they have often been seen as places of stagnation, disease, and death. They are home to ghosts and spirits. In Aboriginal culture they are considered to be a womb of life and a home to unborn souls. Far from being sources of disease and death swamp water has many healing properties. The moss, plant life and rich mineral content in the water are great sources of nutrients to the body. Henry Thoreau discovered this and spent a lot of time wallowing around in swamps.He also recommended swimming in a swamp as a cure for melancholy and depression.

"My temple is the swamp. When I would recreate myself, I seek the darkest wood, the thickest and most impenetrable and to the citizen, the most dismal, swamp. I enter the swamp as a sacred place, a sanctum, a sanctorum."

He also writes of the swamp as the first birth place of nature.

"That central meadow and pool in Gowing's swamp is it's very navel, omphalos, where the umbilical chord was cut that bound creation to its womb. Methinks that every swamp tends to have or suggests such an interior tender spot. The sphagnous crust that surrounds the pool is pliant and quaking, like the skin or muscles of the abdomen: you seem to be slumping into the very bowels of the swamp. The surface of the swamp is the soft spot of nature, even the breast of Mother Nature. The soft center of the swamp is also related to the human body. The part of you that is wettest is fullest of life"

I plan to dance in the swamp more often.

The dress is in need of some stain remover.

Those stains sound like they are worth it, im really glad you had a good time and also thanks for the quotes from thoreau i didnt know he thought that much about the swap. If i find a swamp without gators in it ill give it a try.

...really awesome creative stuff and that it was real!! and that extra info about the swamps as well, spooky cool.

Blue, wow very creative writing and interesting information. I thought it was fictional when I read it I also imagined it being at night under the moon (or was it)? You are a very brave person

I was dancing in theafternoon. I don't. know if I am brave but sometimes an adventure is just what I need to bring me back to life.

Wow, that was so beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing such intimate writing