immeasurable

he was already swimming,

in the early summer sea,

feeling more refreshed with every stroke.

she had just left her clothes at the beach

and was coming to meet him,

no sounds around them but the waves,

the sun setting patiently in the background.

“well, nice!

you sure look better than before,” he said.
“I guess the fitness training you’ve been doing

is starting to pay off.”

“I’m also happier now,” she replied,

and dipped her head in the water,

keeping it in as much as possible,

letting the cool waters wash away

a week’s worth of fatigue.

“well, that doesn’t mean much, does it?

you could be less happy in five minutes,

or even sad,

but you’ll still be as fit as you are now.

fitness is something concrete,

measurable,

happiness is… meh,” he waved his arm in the air,

indicating something cloudy,

insubstantial.

“sure, but, feeling my body healthier,

feeling a stronger connection to it,

really makes me happier!

you can’t measure it,

ok, I get that,

but it’s still true!”

“sure, sure, that’s great.

now, listen,

I’ve made this new measure,

which includes the fastest lap

you can do in the swimming pool,

and your blood oxygen levels

and…” 

she had wandered off near some rocks,

and was watching intently

at the tiniest crab she had ever seen.

it was bravely fighting against the waves,

going three steps to the right,

then being pushed 2 steps back again.

the poor crab would make it, eventually,

she was sure of it.

“..., and in this metric I’ve reached twelve now,

but when I started I was only doing about eight,

so that’s a huge improvement,” he kept on,

not missing a beat.

“and you also seem happier now,” she replied,

staring at the seagulls that were circling them from high above,

white touches of light in the purple, darkening sky.

“I’m really glad.”

 ______

immeasurable by Dimitrios Kokkinos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License