It had been 12 years since I was last on a bike. I remember falling off the bike – it was adjusted to a 6 foot 2 inch tall body. This five foot 3 inch tall body fell more than once, racked myself, bled and became bruised. I oppressed those memories now, buried them deep, put on my bikini and hopped onto the large 10 -speed, a bike I had borrowed from a friend I had just met 2 weeks ago. Never feeling so perfect or free, I coasted downhill for a magical mile along the oceanside on the Big Island of Hawaii. My destination, the famous nude black sand beach, where dolphins come in daily to rest and play. The moment I arrived I saw 100 fins in the bay. I forgot about the bike, took off my bikini top, put on my mask & snorkel, ran across the smoldering black sand and dove into the crystal clear liquid to join my aquatic friends. They were way out there. It felt like I had been swimming at least 30 minutes, and looking around I felt like I was in the middle of the ocean, alone, except for the school of fins calling me to them. I was almost there.

 The ocean floor was getting further and further away. It must have been 300 feet below me, the water was so clear I could see every fish, coral and seaweed with clarity. I also saw a school of barracuda in the distance. No fear entered me. I’ll never forget how on this particular day, at this particular moment, I had NO fear, none, zero, zip, zilch, nada. Thinking back, it doesn’t even make sense. I just kept swimming, it was dolphins or bust at this point, I had come too far.

After a 45 minute swim I made it to them, hundreds swimming in formation, in a pattern, and then a few random dolphins – the watch dolphins, who were protecting the others as they slept. I had to swim fast to keep up with them, and then sometimes they would slow down or swim back towards me. They came close, again zero fear. The other thing I will never forget – while in their presence I went into a trance, a meditative state, and I lost my ability to think of anything – except one thought over and over again, which was  “I love you, I love you so much, thank you for letting me be here with you.” When they were done checking me out, it was so incredibly obvious – they just swam away, period. There was no way I had any chance of following them. 

And then I was truly alone, and the beach was very very far away. Fear kicked in. I swam as fast as I could, praising my college swim coach for teaching me proper swimming techniques, making it possible to haul ass back to shore. Back on land,  filled with adrenaline, love, and black sand I knew I had just experienced one of the best moments of my life.  I looked at my phone – 2 and a half hours had gone by. It was an epic moment. 

Would you like to practice your writing by compiling all of your epic moments in life? Join the Epic Moments Writing Group we meet once a month to practice and share our awesome stories.

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