February is for Connection
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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…
What experience won’t protect you from Do you ever catch yourself thinking, “I should have this all figured out by now”? Maybe you’ve been swimming for years. You’ve mastered the strokes, conquered goals, built confidence through repetition. What could you possibly have in common with someone just learning how to float? This week, a thoughtful mom joined me for a 3 day mini swim camp with her 7-year-old daughter. Sure, mom could swim further and faster—but what struck me was her willingness…
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…
Performance versus Potential The word ‘performance’ makes me cringe. It brings me back to high school swim meets. Spending time before a race visualizing a qualifying time that would earn me a spot in the State swim meet. Then diving off the blocks and falling apart. The weeks, months, years of practice completely escaping me. Anxiety and overthinking taking over. Potential, I can get behind. Everyone has potential. With my swimmers, I cultivate curiosity, resilience, and a growth mindset….
Do you leap or linger? Lately, I’ve been reflecting on thresholds—in part because I’m standing on one myself: a 50-mile swim coming up later this month. It’s the kind of challenge that asks me to show up differently—not just in the water, but in how I prepare, how I rest, how I relate to resistance. And this week, one of my swimmers asked me a question that got me thinking. He was lingering at the edge of the pool, delaying that first plunge, and he asked: “Do you ever take your time getting…
Who’s in your corner? Do you stuff down your disappointment? Or talk it through? This week I have been reflecting and integrating what was not readily apparent after getting out of Lake Memphremagog. Immediately after the swim I debriefed with my crew and coach, but the lessons keep unfolding. This week I hosted a Q&A at The Water’s Edge where my community asked astute questions about how I kept going in the night despite the inconvenience of being cold, my decision making process before…