Feeling Scattered?
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When the Goal Gets in the Way Last week, I wrote about trust—how the water meets us when we show up, just as we are. How learning to trust might be the most powerful thing we can do. This week, something happened in a lesson that reminded me how easily trust slips—not from fear, but from something more subtle. I was working with a 6-year-old who had just discovered he could push off from one wall, arms in streamline, eyes on the bottom, and glide all the way across the short side of the…
550 yards This week, I realized I was swimming to the other side just because it was there. I was following my plan—I teach a class at Rogue X on Wednesdays from 12-1 PM and after class I do a 60 minute practice. It’s the only day of the week that I swim in a “regular” pool, and I’ve come to expect the level of effort that I put in so that I can check off the box for doing some amount of time in Zones 4 and 5. When I planned my week on Sunday, it looked great—I was going to get in strength,…
Ready or Not, Ready Enough I didn’t feel ready. Not for the spring water temps. Not for the distance. Not for everything this swim would ask of me. But I went anyway. Because sometimes, waiting to feel “ready” is just another way of hiding. And I could feel myself trying to hide! The weather looked rough. It was Mother’s Day weekend. Despite months of planning, coordinating schedules, and arranging travel to get my crew here, when push came to shove, all I wanted to do was stay home and enjoy…
Hey there, June is here—and with it, a new theme inside The Water’s Edge: Marathon Mindset. Marathon Mindset isn’t just a set of thoughts—it’s the story we tell ourselves about what we can handle and who we can become when the goal is far off, the water gets rough, or we’re deep in the middle of the journey. It shows up when we’re tired, afraid, or unsure—and when we choose to keep going anyway. It’s the kind of mindset that helps us trust the process, lean into uncertainty, and stay open to…
I want to quit. A few years ago, a coach pointed out my tendency to give up when things got hard. It stung to hear her say it—because it’s true. Now I see it everywhere. After dinner, at the sink with three filthy skillets—the kind with cooked-on food—my feet ache, my back aches, and I just want to leave them and sink into the couch. In a moment of disagreement with my husband, I want to walk out of the room. Two tasks left at the end of a long day—I think, Do they really have to be done…
The water is fine. Periodically I peer out from under the rock where I hide, I glance at the news and see vitriol. Even the headlines seem generated to divide us. But in my backyard pool and in my adult swimming classes at Rogue X, we’re humming and floating and finding connection from our books to our toes. We’re feeling the inbuilt support of the water by bouncing ourselves like basketballs. Young and old, we’re leaning into trust. While the world pushes us to choose sides, the water asks…
