A certain swell.
Today is a day of generous emotion, in that it is ample and engulfing like a huge wave. It might be silly, but two concurrent and separate events have taken place today that fill me with a swell that is thrilling and a little bit disconcerting. The level of emotion is strong, the pitch is tippy, and I feel a little wild with it.
Some friends of mine just successfully rowed a 4-man boat from Washington state to Maui. They reached the harbor and stood on the dock today, and the power in that reaches me here in my home, in my heart, as I await a client appointment and anxiously pace about.
Their water pump broke along the way, and so did their back up water pump. They were in the middle of a 9-day oceanic storm. They did not have a crew following them for safety - they were alone with no one coming to save them for 54 days and had to simply figure it out.
How insane it must feel to be without your people for that long, at sea, no dirt in sight. To simply trust a plan you built before you ever got to know the pain of an oar cracking into your shins, or the 7 ton burden of having to hand pump your water clean of salt. To look at a map and do the math, to row on a machine for a few months - but then to actually row across an ocean with only 3 hour naps in between night and day shifts at the oars. It is surreal to imagine, let alone watch. I can't begin to understand how those men are feeling now, with their feet on solid ground and the paradigm-shifting journey now suddenly over.
Today, a young man also wrote and posted a love letter to our community of which he has been huge a part of - as a good bye. This last year, my family has become ardent Everett Silvertip Hockey fans and we have had the honor and privilege of watching these young kids make history for the entire Silvertip organization and the community at large. After winning the league championship for the first time in the organization's 23 years, we have watched the over-agers declare their next chapter of their journey one by one and have awaited the news of where our younger players ripe for the NCAA and NHL draft may be heading.
Landon DuPont is the first of 3 that I have waited to cheer on in this way, and he wrote a beautiful letter to us all before sharing he has committed to the University of Michigan to play Division I hockey as a Wolverine. It's crazy, but I feel maternal as fuck to this kid I have never met - and to his compatriots - and all I can see is a son on the brink of college life, a new era of challenge, a new level of ambition to sink his teeth into while having the most fun possible. Tasting the thrill of anticipation for the future, which feels nearly identical to nerves if you aren't paying attention.
I remember the way walking across my university campus by myself for the first time made me suddenly realize how young I still was, despite being so fucking sure of myself. The surety never left, not entirely - but it certainly was a new paradigm to master. This ambitious, wildly talented, severely driven kid - a son - is on the precipice of this shift.
Mourning the magic that has wrapped. Shaking with anticipation for what will soon unfold.
In my house, in my office, in the kitchen, eating my bodybuilding meals one by one and pacing as I refresh instagram for new news on both my rower friends and my unknown, unrelated, deeply loved sons - this is how you'll find me now. Swollen with this energy and ready for a focal point. I pulled some tarot to see where my focus needs to be, and Djinn showed me a release of material, a refocus on emotional and mental magic, a watchfulness for signs, and a readiness to take leaps where inspiration sparks.
My imagination has shown me fulfillment through energetic leadership and love, a change in my outward framing. A big change, in every daydream. A move, a new career, a new role as a leader. A coach. A nurturer. I think Djinn wants me to pay attention to these inspirational sparks and to notice when steps needs to be taken without hesitation. My friends and my sons are looping me in to this season of paradigm shifts, of mourning magic that once was, and yearning for and celebrating the magic that is come.
Magic on a swell.
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