Just when the 2020 lake swimming season began for me in early Spring, the pandemic struck.. And then the new of deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and too many others at the hands of police. The Black Lives Matter movement and long-overdue social-justice movement hit full stride. And then the wildfires. Blogging about swimming in Washington lakes and the joys of open-water swimming seemed irrelevant and self-indulgent. I swam all spring and summer but had nothing to say that seemed worth saying. I was at a loss for words. Clearly, it wasn’t time to write.

It was time to listen the voices of other people in my community, to read and discuss books about racism, to talk about white privilege, to stand up for racial justice, to write letters to elected officials, to have difficult and awkward conversations, to make sure equity and inclusion were in the forefront of my work as a natural-history writer and member of my community in Olympia, Washington.

The lakes I swam this springing summer in provided me a space to think, to feel, to shift my perspective, to accept that life would not return to “normal” any time soon. My swims were sometimes wordless solo adventures—just water and skin and breath. Sometimes they were more social and my swimming buddies and I talked and swam our way across the lake and back. Our conversations focussed on current events and crises and what actions we could take to contribute meaningfully toward positive change.

Right now, that action is VOTE