Day 80 – OnePinky Student Shines, Part 2

Drum Roll Please.

The answer is revealed now…Kathleen shares the rest of her story…and how swimming makes her heart sing.

(for those of you who have no idea what I am referring to, go back and read yesterday’s post on Day 70, OnePinky Student Shines, Part 1.

Kathleen went off to her beloved pool and started her swim.  It’s her practice to check her watch starting with the first lap so she gets an idea of what kind of pace she’s on.  She noticed right off the bat that she was about 2 seconds faster that normal.  She then checked her watch at the 6-lap mark and again noticed a lower time than usual.  That’s when she thought she might have a very good swim that night.  By the time Kathleen made it to the half-mile point, she realized that it was actually possible, if she kept up this pace, and didn’t lose focus, that she could indeed break the 30 minute mark.  She swam that last half-mile repeating to herself, “Seize The Day” and “Eyes on the Prize”.  When she finally made it to the end and reached up to stop her timer, she was rewarded with the number 29:55.  She was proud and happy that she had achieved something that had once seemed so out of reach.

As I said earlier, Kathleen swims mainly for the joy of it.  She feels she will never give up swimming again (On her business card, under her name, it says “swimmer”).  And that her commitment to it, in spite of the fact that she’s not as fast as she was 20 years ago, rewarded her with a sense of accomplishment that will never go away.

So swim on Kathleen…I am so proud of you. :) :):)

And to all of us, move today in honor and reverence for our bodies. They matter, they count and they deserve to be moved and stretched.

As I always like to say, we came out of the womb kicking and moving.

The body knew what it wanted and needed right at birth.

Sending you Peace, Love and Movement.

XO, Laura

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Day 79 – OnePinky Student Shines, Part 1

Leah,

Love reading about your progress, realizations with Mum, your feeling your feelings and owning your power and your age!

Speaking of owning her power and her age, OnePinky member Kathleen has some great wisdom to share with us all.

Here it goes, enjoy!

Today I’d like to write about commitment and how it can reward us at unexpected times.  You may recall OnePinky Kathleen, who spent the day in September as a caddie at Pebble Beach.  She has maintained an 80 pound weight loss for 4 years now.  One of the things Kathleen loves to do is swim.  As a child, she was never on a swim team but she took it up in 1980 when she was 28.  She always does the same swim, 1 mile freestyle, because she loves giving it her best effort for such a precise distance.  Over the years, she has kept a journal of her swim times and as you can imagine, her times in the 80’s were her fastest.  In fact, she completely gave up swimming from 1989 until 2001 before the pool beckoned her back.  And while the joy of swimming had returned for Kathleen, her swimming times had not.  Her best time for a mile in the 80’s was 27:45.  Today on a good day, she was lucky to break 32 minutes.  In fact, that day in 2001 when she did her first mile in years, it took her 47 minutes.   Kathleen was convinced that she could never come close to her previous swim times.  But that really wasn’t the point.  The point was, that she had rediscovered something that she loved doing which was also very good for her body, mind, and soul.  So her swim times became secondary.  Then one day, she noticed her times started to drop.  Just a little, and then a little more. Kathleen told me that she has actually said to herself many times, “I will NEVER break the 30 minute mark.”

But a funny thing happened this past Monday….

Stay tuned to tomorrow.

XO, Laura

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