Sober feeling

Dear sir:
I’ve laid awake for an hour now so I will, at 2 a.m., write this.
I am an over 40, six-foot father of five with scuba diving experience who is never (almost) at a loss in a tough situation. But a few hours ago, I came very close to death—in a ridiculous way—my children’s pool.
After doing underwater somersaults, and having lost my sense of horizon and needing air, I sought the surface, but couldn’t find it. I spun around more—thrusting my arms and legs this way and that, searching for the bottom or the surface—yet found nothing to reference to.
I paused, using precious seconds, hoping that my body would naturally right itself and I could just push off the bottom, but nothing was under my feet when I tried again to find the bottom.
Once, my face momentarily broke the surface and I inhaled—only to start coughing as I continued my spinning search for the surface. I knew that two of my kids were watching, yet couldn’t think of a way to signal for help.
My wife lay reading a book in the sunshine a few feet away as other kids played on the lawn. My thoughts were clear, yet desperate. I remember a hand finding air for a second, yet, having no way to pull me to it, I continued my struggling search.
One foot, then both feet, touched bottom and I stood up and I stood coughing and wondering how it could happen to me, a confident swimmer, in four feet of water—in a children’s pool.
My breath-hold endurance had been at its limit when my search for the surface began and though I didn’t realize it until I stood holding the side of the pool, I was dizzy, my spinning somersaults still making my senses reel wildly.
Now, some will from this develop some pool safety rules, which is fine, yet the sober feeling which I have now speaks more than rules. We’ve all read of good pilots, truckers, farmers, hunters, fishermen, and workmen being casualties in activities that they were confidently skilled in.
This sober feeling which I am given would speak of the weakness of what I may consider to be my strength. It is not my place to say that any one person or group of people ought to carry this same feeling, but if you have received any of it now, carry it.
It is a gift from the Giver of my life to you.
(Signed),
Rod Harrison
Devlin, Ont.