And Jesus walked on the water…..well guess what…So did I…..
I walked on water..…
In fact I walked on an ocean-
I walked on the Bothnian sea….
It was frozen solid but I did it.
I really did!!!

Picture the seaside world of an ocean.
People cheerfully playing in the water, cavorting on the sands, enjoying the sunshine and the glorious blue ocean. The ocean is stretched before you so far that it mingles with the blue horizon in a far off world…..to infinity and beyond ( as my grandson would say!)
Now picture the seaside world of white. The once blue ocean turned into a creation of arctic white. Your eye travels towards the horizon where it meets the blue-grey of infinity and beyond and all you can see is white.

Frozen
Solid
As far as the eye can see.
I walked on the ocean!
No- it was not as easy as that-

It was suggested after our ice castle visit to’ view the sea’
What sea? All I could see what white…frozen solid white stretching out before me endlessly.
“Come on…lets walk on it”…..came the words from my beloved as I watched  others using cross country skis skimming their way across the ice and glancing down to my  heavy winter boots below me….
Really?
Was he mad?
Marc wanted me to do what??

Images of movies where bodies have plunged through the cracking ice into freezing deathly waters flew before me. And stepping fearfully along the shoreline I began to walk.
Slowly….fearfully…staying close to where I thought the edge was ….and then  great trepidation as I heard ice cracking below me. Keep walking…. keep walking…breathe…breathe…. yes breathing is a good thing as I clung tightly to marc’s hand. Well if we were going to die we were going to die together. I was not going to let go of him in this instance!

But we didn’t die!

In fact, I followed the track across the ocean and walked far out to sea…(much better than swimming believe me). I walked stronger and more confident and then turning around began to laugh as I saw in the distance the tiny sea houses on the shore blinking before me. We were so far away from the land. I was walking on water…. I was in the middle of the ocean way way out.from the shore line .. and I was standing upright!

I did it!
I walked on water
i was so excited
I don’t need to do it again!

Snuggling into my husband in our warm safe hotel room that night laughing about the ocean walking antics of the day – what does he suggest….” let’s go back and do it again tomorrow – but this time lets glide on the water!”
What?
Do, it again?
My answer- “We will see!”

The next morning, he drives back to the bay. He gives me ‘that look’.
I give him that look that women give their ‘biggest male child’, their husbands, when they suggest something totally insane … you all know that look?
But he gives me ‘that’ shrug that indicates they go are going to do ‘it’ anyway.
Off he goes and hires a ‘kicksled’ – looks like a child’s scooter but has two runners instead of wheels and is designed to allow you ‘glide’ on the ice. Like hell I am going to be ‘sucked’ into this one even if he bats his baby-blues at me. I am not happy with this outcome!
What happened to my “ we will see?’

Off he goes on the ice and then comes back. I am content to take photos. He goes off and comes back again tempting me as if this was some form of courtship ritual that I am supposed to respond to. It is not working.
Well, maybe it is working.
Eventually he persuades me to have a ‘little go’.
Okay…..
Then a slightly ‘bigger go’.

But, it is not that easy.
Between trying to keep it gliding forward and not toppling over, plus, trying to steer something that does not have any means of steering is difficult. While at the same time feeling the burn of gasping down freezing cold air into my lungs as my legs and knees work hard to keep some speed up .

But I am actually starting to laugh now..
I start to forget that I am only suspended above metres deep freezing water by a layer of ice of indeterminate thickness – that is until I hear cracking as the runners break through the thin veneer of new ice .
Of course, I do not know that there is a MUCH thicker layer of hard ice beneath that veneer and I am in NO danger of falling through –but  my imagination certainly does not know this!

Panicking I stop, thinking ‘this is it….’
But contrary to my imaginations images,  I do not fall through the ice to suffer a hypothermic death – I continue to glide forward.
Now I can walk on water
I can also glide on water!
And not with skis!

I grow in confidence.
I start to smile.
This is fun – but whatever you do, DON’T tell my husband that!