Tag: Inspiration

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

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NASA Satellite image, April 2004

Just a month and a half after her first attempt, 62-year-old Diana Nyad tried again to complete a cage-less swim from Havana to Florida, only to be stopped 40 hours and 92 miles in (just 11 miles short of the 103 mile goal) by Man ‘o War and Box Jellyfish stings.   She says she’s learned to respect the ocean and won’t try again.  I have trouble believing her.

A few pics here.  Pretty gnarly.

Time to be Fearless…or insane

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Photo via CNN

If you’re bored today, check out Diana Nyad‘s progress as she attempts the 103-mile swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage (they have a kind of electrical shark-guarding field that surrounds her during the swim, but apparently it doesn’t work for certain types of shark, so she also has a team of “shark divers” to distract any sharks that go after her.  Uhh…)  She jumped in at 7:45pm ET yesterday, the swim is expected to take about 60 hours.  She’s 61.

Track her progress on the swim here.

Update:  She didn’t make it.  After 29 hours she voluntarily quit, and exited the water vomiting (uhh…good call on calling it quits).  Props to her for going for it.

Move

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There is no difference between a pessimist who says, “It’s all over, don’t bother trying to do anything, forget about voting, it won’t make a difference,” and an optimist who says “Relax, everything is going to turn out fine.”  Either way the results are the same.  Nothing gets done.

~Yvon Chouinard, CEO and founder of Patagonia

Let us begin

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So let us begin anew —

Remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.  …

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.  …

All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

~John F Kennedy, Inaugural Address
January 20, 1961

Just don’t read his Harvard application essay.

30 Days of Thankfulness

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“I feel a very unusual sensation – if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude.”
~Benjamin Disraeli

I serendipitously stumbled upon a random blog post this morning (even though I don’t really understand paying $70 for a felt tree),  but I found it appropriate given the time of year and serendipitous because I was thinking along these lines just this morning.

Many friends (including myself) have experienced some major life changes in the past few months: getting married, breaking up and finding themselves single for the first time in almost a decade, having babies, losing old jobs, getting new jobs, re-evaluating current jobs, moving far away to strange places, and, of course, turning 30.   And while change is good, it is can be disruptive and not necessarily in line with your grand life plan.  And for me, too often (way too often) I let small defeats and frustration get the best of me.

So, in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, being exactly 30 days out from Thanksgiving, and entering my 30th year of life, I am going to embrace the aforementioned blogger’s suggestion and follow in her footsteps (though I will be using pieces of paper and a jar).  I know this isn’t a totally novel concept, but making an effort to really be aware of everything we do have and stop obsessing about the things that we don’t…every day…just for a month…it can’t hurt.

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
~Thornton Wilder

 

Cook, Pray, Run

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Being new in town and unemployed, where the one person I do know well is attempting to survive the first year of med school, while living in a small apartment with very little furniture (our living room is 2 chairs), no internet, no TV, and few working appliances…I need to get out, find ways to maximize my enjoyment during this rare period of time off.

And so, in the spirit of productivity and enjoying my (hopefully) short-lived freedom, my days have been (and will continue to be) devoted to three central activities:

  • Cook:  I am not a good cook.  But I am going to be.  I have been trying to make sure Paul has dinner every night when he gets home (because, well, I am a lady that lunches, and that is what we do).  For both his and my own sake, I am committing myself to improving my technique…through practice.  I am cooking a different meal (that requires more than throwing bread and cheese or something frozen in the toaster oven) at least 5 nights a week.
  • Pray: for a job.
  • Run: I have that half marathon in December.  Instead of just trying to finish it (which was my original goal, considering I didn’t exercise at all for over 3 months), I have decided I am going to try to PR it…which may not be as impressive as it sounds, considering the only other half-marathons I’ve ran were 1.) with a friend who walked part of it, and 2.) the day after Halloween in San Francisco.

And coaching (but that messes up my title, and it’s a job, so I left that out.) Not a bad way to spend your day.   Anyone who’s around is welcome to join in the trifecta.

Fall 7 times…

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Nana korobi, ya oki.

~Japanese proverb

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

There is a guy that swims on the Masters team that I coach named George.  George is 55 and his life goal has been to qualify for the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii.  (For those of you unfamiliar with an Ironman, it is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run…one right after the other.  Absurd.)   To qualify for Kona you have to either achieve a certain time or place at specific races.  It’s a prestigious race, really difficult to qualify.

2 weeks ago, George completed the Ironman Louisville.   He dropped his time by 40 minutes, won his age group, and will be flying to Hawaii in 3 weeks to race at Kona.  His marathon time was 3:41, over 20 minutes better than his previous PR.

Louisville was his 8th Ironman.