Skinny Dipping

My friend Henry and his wife were doing a horse riding excursion on a beach in Costa Rica. He's in his mid-sixties at the time and they like to take exotic vacations. For his 80th birthday he went skydiving! The man remains young in spite of his age.

So they spent the morning with a guide and ten other people riding their ponies through the sand and deep into the rain forest. When they broke for lunch it was on a beautiful bay ... powder white sand, aqua blue water, rolling waves against a cloudless deep blue sky. A bar-b-que was waiting on them when they arrived and the feasted on jerked chicken, rice-and-pees, mangoes, plantains and papayas. They washed it down with Presidente beer and shots of tequila.

The afternoon was to be another horse ride into the rain forest but Henry opted to not go along. He and his wife stayed on this beautiful beach, holding hands and walking in the surf. At the end of the bay they waded into the ocean and made their way around the spit of green lush foliage and were surprised to find another bay with a beach more beautiful than the one they'd just been on.

The sand seemed whiter, the ocean bluer and the waves better. Henry looked at his wife and said, "Honey, this is our chance! There is no one here and all of this is ours," he said holding his arms out. "Let's do it!"

So he took his swim trunks and tee shirt off and dove into the water. Laughing his wife did the same and they body surfed into shore. They laughed and kissed and played as children do when they are at the beach. Henry waded out deeper and waited on the next wave. Leaning forward with his hands before him he slid into the rising swell and rolled over the top with the wave, becoming one with it, and the crashing white cap carried him to shore.

His belly stopped the ride in the shallow soft sand and he stood wiping the salt water from his eyes. When he opened them ... there were ten people on horses and one guide in a semi-circle around him each with very wide eyes. His wife had missed the wave so her nakedness was covered by the sea. On the other hand, Henry was completely naked in front of an audience.

It took him a few awkward seconds to process his reality and he did he smiled, waved and said, "Come on in! The waters great!"

And he turned and swam back out to his wife.

Laughing the others slowly turned their horses around and returned to the darkness of the forest.

I laughed and laughed when he told me this story. It is so easy to picture a naked man in his late 60s standing in the surf, stopping forward in an old man's stance, wiping the salt water from his closed eyes ... opening them to be surrounded by the people he's just left.

Most people would have covered themselves or gotten back in the water or who knows what to escape their embarrassment. But Henry ... waved and invited them to experience the joy he was experiencing. Then he returned to his joy and they made their own decisions ... and did what was expected of them.

I wonder how many of them really wanted to dismount, disrobe, display themselves as who they really are and ... PLAY in the wonderland of God's creation ... becoming one with it ... just as God made them. Adam and Eve stuff before they screwed it up and decided that a fig leaf between your legs is a good idea. It probably gave them a rash and things really went to hell after that.

There are so many ways that we hide ourselves. Masks we wear so that others see us as how we think we should be seen rather than who we really are. Games we play trying to prove we're smarter or better. Surgeries to improve on what God and our parents made. We forsake the excitement of celebrating who we are with who others who celebrate themselves just as they are.

There is nothing better!

My friends know that I'm not big on clothes. I mostly wear a pair of running shorts when I have to wear something. It feels kind of like a fig leaf. But I lose the laundry often. My outdoor shower is wear I bathe, the beloved back deck keeps my all over tan and I have a collection of friends who like to skinny dip.

I'm also not big on games. It's so much easier to just tell the truth. It takes so much energy to do otherwise and the times that I lied, manipulated or misled ... well, it led to things that were worse.

Last night I was engulfed in love for being nothing other than who I am. And passionately loving others for simply being who they are.

So today ... on the Lord's Day ... I have an invitation for you ... Come on in! The water's fine!