My journey to balance family, work, and water polo.
The Ties that Bind and the Weight of Connection
Traevelling 30,000 feet above the ground on my way back to Chicago, it’s hard not to think about distance and space. How people in the same room can still feel worlds apart while others can be physically separated by hundreds of miles and still be intimately...
Focus
I pull into the driveway, trying to leave that last of my work day behind. As I enter the house, I am greeted by the all too familiar semi-chaotic scene. Lola comes jumping into the hallway, happy to greet, while my kids stay somewhat immobile in their current...
Harbinger
Harbinger : "one that presages or foreshadows what is to come" It had become somewhat of a fixture in our dining room. I'd pass by it pretty much daily. Can't help notice it. It's not small, my bike, given that I'm 6'3" and it's a custom frame. And although when...
Dissonance
It is September 2012, a bit chilly out, a mist of rain that night, and I find myself a few feet from the stage, packed amongst several hundred others at the Metro. Bob Mould comes out with his new band and promptly starts playing the first song from Copper Blue, "The...
Sixteen
I remember sixteen years ago... Your first night on this earth. Your first night in my life. Swaddled up and cradled in my arms, I walked the quiet empty hospital hallways for what seemed like hours. My thoughts racing, disorganized from exhaustion but fueled by my...
Friends
"Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.”--Richard Bach It's has been a bit since I last wrote, but events over the last few days have pulled me back tonight and has compelled me to...
Limits
My chest is heaving. The air I rapidly suck into my lungs does not seem to be adequate as I immediately gasp for another breath. My heart is pounding, trying to escape the confines of the sternum that lies over it. The waves of nausea are somewhat overshadowed by a...
Doppleganger
There are times when I get a bit more reflective. Often later in the evening, with a cup of coffee in hand after a long day at work. I come home to a quiet house, the family still out and about somewhere. I plop down on the couch and as I drift into that place...
Decisions
I knew the moment when my career in pediatrics was over. I was in the fourth year of my med-peds residency, taking overnight call in the pediatric ICU. Nights were busy, stressful and I was alone. A young boy came in as a pediatric motor vehicle trauma,...
Reset
One month. Actually one month three days to be exact since I did Ironman WI. The physical stress on my body has passed and along with it most of the intensity behind the wave of emotions and excitement that followed. Having finished the race on such a personal high,...
Building Blocks
Its 9am Sunday morning and I'm standing on a humid pool deck staring across at the blank faces of thirteen high school water polo players. Most of them I have never seen before and don't have a clue as to their names. They are looking back at me. Sort of. At least...
Disequilibrium
About a week ago I wrote my first blog about BALANCE. How I hope the journey to another Ironman triathlon will allow me to find more balance in life and continue to gain valuable insight. So it was with enthusiasm I looked forward to my week. To throw myself into my...