I was tired today.

And I pep-talked myself all the way out of bed, into my swimsuit and over to the pool.

Come on, Come on, Come on. It’s all right. Come on. We’re going to get started. Come on.

It was the prayer of the half-dead battery, when you haven’t had enough sleep and there’s a little too much to do.

And then came the lecture.

This swimming thing is not going to be like running or biking or yoga, where you do it for a week and then you get bored. You always do that and you’re not going to do that this time. Geez, can’t you stick with anything?

I felt like I was pulling myself by the ear into the locker room. I was being a little ugly with me.

But I got there. I got to the pool. And I walked out in my flip flops and the pool was full of dudes.

I usually go very early. Today was a little later and it was one big man-fest of dudes in goggles slicing the water.

And the last thing I wanted was a man-fest.   I wanted to putter through my lane in a peaceful and strong way.

So I got in the hot tub. And I thought about the inner me. And Inner Me said, Hey, I bet there’s some aspect of this man-fest that is useful to us.

And I said, Shut up, Inner Me.

And Inner Me said, That’s just the tired talking. Let’s hang tight.

So I reached out to the divine source, and I thought about contracting and expanding. I thought about how the weight of life can hold you down and give you structure. I thought about the suffering of the world.

And then I realized that I was the tuna in a soul sandwich. I had the inner me soothing on the inside, my sweet divine spark. I had God on the outside going,  It’s okay just to sit here and appreciate the warm water.

Nobody was judging me. Nobody. And that included me.

Nobody was assessing the burdens of life at that moment. I was just sitting there in a soul sandwich and that felt good.  And Peaceful.

So, I prayed for the suffering people and I got out of the hot tub and Inner Me said Just 10 minutes of lap time. And I said, I’ll come back this afternoon.

We are never alone. We are really never alone. And we can put our burdens away for a minute or two.  I hope you have a moment in your soul sandwich today.

Read on to the next installment of the Inner Me Series: The purpose of the Inner Me.