Standing at the Edge
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The Invitation of Courage I recently learned about how some cultures value the job of a wailer — the one who cries out at funerals, giving everyone else permission to feel their grief. It’s an ancient, vital role: one person’s honest expression helps others grieve out loud and process their emotions. It’s curious to me how, as humans, we tend to move in lock step with the people around us. When people join my Intro to Efficient Swimming class, they’ve often tried adult learn-to-swim programs…
The Long Game We’ve talked about awareness. We’ve talked about redirecting attention. But the real work—the work that changes us—lives in the long game. Because once you see a habit… and once you learn where to place your attention instead… you enter the part no one really likes to talk about: Repeating it. Over and over and over. Sometimes with ease. Sometimes with frustration. Sometimes with no visible change at all. This is exactly where most people assume something is wrong. They think if…
The art of trusting your limits. After I sent yesterday’s email about my own hesitation to turn the shower to cold, a few people responded. One person shared they look forward to cold showers, and another said they’ve done them for so long that a shower feels incomplete without a cold burst at the end. Thank you for sharing—these responses made me feel part of something! And then someone else wrote about a different kind of moment. They had a swim practice scheduled—something they usually…
You can’t go back This week, an 11-year-old came for a lesson and said she wanted to “go back” to some of the things she learned when she was little — because they didn’t quite make sense back then. No reluctance. No resignation. Just clear-eyed recognition that revisiting those skills would help her now. I had to smile at her wisdom. Most swimmers groan, “Oh man! I have to go back to basics again” — like it’s a punishment, a sign they’ve failed somehow. But this kid understood something most…
What are you training for? When people ask me, “What are you training for?” my answer is simple: life. Sure, I like to take on a big swim each year (my version of misogi)—this time, I’m celebrating my 50th trip around the sun with a 50-mile swim in a Vermont lake. But here’s the thing: I don’t want training to feel like something separate from the rest of my life. I want it to fit into my days, not take them over. Training for Life, Not Just a Goal If you’ve ever looked at the long list of…
One Breath at a Time Is it just me, or did it surprise you too when we came back from the long Thanksgiving weekend and it was suddenly December? Sure, I’ve been hearing Christmas music in stores since before Halloween, but it still felt like the season changed overnight. Monday arrived and I found myself staring at the list of everything I wanted to wrap up before the end of the year—wondering how on earth I was going to fit it all into four jam-packed weeks studded with holiday events. I…
