Manitouwabing Lake, ON

My Watermark is Manitouwabing Lake, Ontario.

I used to be terrified of water. It's fierce frozen bite kept me away at all costs. Every summer at camp, I was as far away from Manitouwabing Lake as possible at all times. But in the mornings, swimming was mandatory. I dreaded that horrific hour, the shivers began far before my feet touched the water. The water was beyond freezing; the temperature never changed, consistently a hundred degrees below freezing. The scorching summer heat did nothing to warm the water nor the sensation of entering it.

Somehow, I always made it through those hour-long swim periods. Perhaps because I had no choice, but likely because I always found a way to enjoy it. I was not alone in the struggle, I had my cabin mates beside me, fighting the cold war together. Fun was never far, the warmth of our spirit preventing hypothermia. Water is neither an eternal friend nor an enemy, but a helping hand bringing us the greatest joys of life.