March 11, 2026

Scheduled Maintenance

Once again, as has been the case for the past three years in March, “my” pool has closed for a week of scheduled maintenance, and so my daily routine (do we call it a “rut” for short? Maybe we do?) has had to temporarily shift. As it’s the week following the clocks’ change to Daylight Savings Time, the shift has been extra, me waking before the sun and venturing out in the early morning amidst the cheer-cheer-cheers from wakey cardinals singing in the trees to ride the subway east and then walk south to the Wellesley Community Centre, a bright and modern swimming pool that’s free for everyone and whose cool water is such a refreshing change from where I usually swim. And I really love the shift so much, a window onto a different part of the day, a different part of the city, a new direction, a bit of flexibility that demonstrates just how much room there is to stretch and grow, room I don’t pay much attention to most of time. Because I like my routine very much—if this is a rut I will take it. But it’s just so easy to forget how much more there is, how different things can be, how invigorated I feel when I step out of my comfort zone, and so it’s useful to be reminded, and it makes me wonder how I might look for this kind of space in other part of my life.