You're a great swimmer. Sure, it's been awhile since you've been in the pool, but you were always a great swimmer. Born with an aptitude, a God given gift to take to the water like a fish. So you take a job as a lifeguard, at the kiddie pool...a good way to get your feet wet again. And you eagerly go to the kiddie pool, expecting to see happy little swimmers just needing a watchful eye, a little extra encouragement, a "push" to jump, but not dive, into the deeper side of the pool. And some kids in the kiddie pool are just what you expected, but others are in way over their heads...and this is just the kiddie pool.

Sometimes you can't help but look up, and see the big pool. There are lots of lifeguards around the big pool; some are sharp, strong swimmers like you. But some are not. And there are a lot of kids. Too many kids. Some of them never learned to swim in the kiddie pool. Some are new to the pool and never received a basic lesson before they were thrown into the big pool. And so some...well, some are just drowning. Right before your eyes. You see it, and wonder if anyone else does. But you can't leave the kiddie pool, you have a responsibility to your swimmers there...don't you? From your post at the kiddie pool, it seems that some of the lifeguards are trying to save them. But some are not. Some turn away. Some throw the struggling swimmers a brick. Some say they'll hop right into the pool once the paperwork is done. And so some of the swimmers go under, and there are just.too.many.to.save.

And it keeps you up at night. And then it wakes you up at 4 a.m. And you've shed more tears than you ever knew a job at the kiddie pool would require of you. Because you'd save every one of them if you could. The one who can't understand the instructions being yelled to him because he came from a foreign pool, and returns to it each night. He's sharp, could be a great swimmer, but just needed more time before he was thrown into the big pool. But there is never.enough.time. And there may be a struggling swimmer who can hear what the lifeguard is saying but his body has grown in ways his mind has not, and the lifeguards are deceived by size. They use really big words or hold up signs for him to read, but it doesn't make any sense to the big, little man who's drowning; so confusion leads to fear, which leads to frustration, which leads to misbehavior, and then no one wants to save him anymore. But you do. And the pretty swimmer is drowning, too. The so sweet, so quiet, barely makes a splash swimmer. It's easy to overlook swimmers like her when there are so many noisy ones in the big pool. But you notice.

And there are other swimmers who just need a good night's sleep. And others that need a decent meal. Some just need a little more practice. And some need the right equipment, they've jumped into the pool in heavy boots because they don't know any better. There are some swimmers just needing to hear a voice above the others yelling, "Good job!" And some are just in over their heads, and need to get back to the kiddie pool, and start with the basics of holding onto the wall and kicking.

And you wonder how they got into the big pool in the first place. Were their parents just not watching? Were the lifeguards too distracted by the overcrowded pool, and the mound of lifeguard paperwork, to notice them tiptoeing dangerously close to the big pool? You know some just fell in by accident. While others were pushed.

So what do you do when you're the lifeguard at the kiddie pool? And it's already too crowded with little swimmers, but you wish they'd send you more. You wish you could scoop a few, or many, out of the big pool and start over with the basics. You wish someone would ask for your help because you know the right answer, afterall, you were born to swim. So what do you do?