Today, my swim friends threw me a party in celebration of my year of swimming and it was a joyful, soul-nourishing experience. Swimming every day in 2022 brought me so many gifts, but if this day had been the only one, it would have been worth it. How rare it is to be so fully celebrated by your community; how wonderful! There was delicious food, beautiful words, lots of laughter. Colleen painted me this incredible painting:

It depicts me in predawn contemplation of the bay; I’m pretty sure it was from one of the days when I had Covid and Colleen agreed to meet me for a swim anyway, saving me from my loneliness. 

Kira wrote me a ditty. She is famous for the ditties she makes up while swimming (a particularly memorable one she created to help her brain stay positive in the face of a bay full of jellyfish). The one she made for me was fantastic and I’m posting it here in its entirety so you can appreciate the way she got everyone joining in the chorus, dancing the “Jenny warm-up” dance that I guess I am notorious for. 

Friendship was the best thing to come out of this year of swimming, for sure. Whether it was deepening my existing friendships or forging new ones, my friendships flourished in the watery waves of the Albany Bulb and in all of the places I traveled. I’m filled up with gratitude for the wonderful people who provided companionship over the year and who made me feel so incredibly special today. 

And as a bonus, we gave ourselves a name: The Bulb Blue Boobies and we started a community blog… Check it out!