Marvel at the Beauty of the Scars . . .

Today a classmate sent me these words of encouragement relative to an assignment about re-establishing one's direction / goals / passions in life. I love the concepts of a broken life being repaired with gold and marveling at the beauty of one's scars. The words resonated not only with the emotional healing that is the focus of our coursework, but also with the physical healing I've encountered these past 5 1/2 years in my dance with cancer. I thought of the surgical scars on my body -- the ones I never look at, the ones I never touch, the ones I make every effort to ignore.

I'm Back in the Water Again!

When I set my alarm last night for five o'clock in the morning, 2-3 hours before I normally wake up, there wasn't a moment of hesitation. I had something wonderful to look forward to! Deep Water Conditioning at 6AM. 

A Southern California native, I've been swimming since I was a toddler. My first swim lessons were at the community plunge in Sierra Madre, where the cold water of the swimming pool was often the only relief from the sweltering summer heat and smog-choked air of the late-1950's. I can still recall my eyes burning, my throat constricting from the deadly combination of pool chlorine and smog.