LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 5.16 29
claritypointelouisville.com
louisvillewatertower.com
Photo
by
Aaron
Kingsbury
Less traumatically, my pain is balled in
my calves from a weekend hike and I'm
ever-infamed from beer and cheese. I
feel like a fsh in here, still, swaying. An
astronaut without clothes. An agate. A
womb. I hope not to fall asleep. Ellis told
me, "Counting breaths is super-key," and
so I count, one, two, three.
Are my brain waves changing?
I bob and bob, remember co-owner
Chelsea Powers saying, "If you can't
spend 90 minutes alone with yourself,
how can you spend it with anyone else?"
I am not afraid.
Some are. Powers has heard: "Am
I going to trip out? Hallucinate? Get
locked in there?" She likens it to
dreaming. "We want everyone to feel
good," Powers says. "Like my mom, who
loves Southern food and the Southern
lifestyle. Like the factory worker or
nurse on their legs all day."
I am no mom, no factory worker. I do
not have PTSD (the foat tank can be a
place of calm). All I am is a heart. The
beat loud in my ears, as if stethoscope-
amplifed. I smile remembering that
persistent warrior.
— AC