Today I get to talk about Edie!! This lady is honestly one of my favourite island people! I just love her for so many reasons and I'm super excited that she (VERY reluctantly) let me take her pictures for this post :)
Edie and I became friends when I started coaching for the Bluephins with her. Naturally, Edie and I spend a lot of time talking shop about swimming and what's going on with that, but if I go too long without including personal life details in my emails then I will eventually get a message that is titled "MORE INFO!" with the content reading "How am I supposed to be your friend/surrogate mother if you don't give me more details about your life!?". She's always asking about what's going on. I love that Edie and I are such good friends. I think we're the perfect example that you don't have to be in the same "stage of life" as someone in order to be friends with them. This is a catch phrase I hear all of time and I truly believe that if you make an effort you can be friends with people who are walking through all sorts of chapters of life. When we met I was starting my first year of a teaching job and Edie had a well established physiotherapy clinic. I was single and Edie was married with 3 adult kids. I had never coached in my life and Edie had years of experience. Edie makes an effort to get to know people. Her secret? She asks questions! It seems basic, but lots of people can't relate because they don't show interest in your life. Edie asks questions because she genuinely cares and wants to know about your life. That's part of why I appreciate her friendship so much. Sure we have swimming in common, but trust me, we can go hours without talking about swimming because Edie is the kind of person that invests and shows interest in every part of your life. Regardless of whether it's something that she has in common with you or not.
Speaking of things Edie's invested in, let's just take a minute to go over how she's involved in her community...you already know that she's a dedicated swim coach, but on top of coaching one of the high performance groups of the team she also fills the role of being our para athlete coach, which is a whole other ball game! Edie is an active member in the life of her church community. Like I mentioned she's a hard working physiotherapist. This year she spoke at a women's coaching conference. She is a proud mama to 3 kids. This summer she's taken up rowing, just for fun :). I'm sure she has more secret hobbies that I'm unaware of as well!! She's always on the move and making something happen.
I asked Edie what advice she has to give to women and she told me her favourite expression “Making a living is about getting, making a life is about giving.” She said that she always tries to remember this in everything she does. You can absolutely see her life as being an example of this! She is one of the most giving people I know. Another thing Edie told me was that she's really learned what having "wisdom of the elders" means. She spoke about how much you learn through life and how much we should value our elders and the experience they have. Here's some more of her words "I work in nursing homes with elders and I respect them so much. I listen to them. I try to read between the lines of what they are saying to me. I try to learn from them. They are showing me how to view the world." What if we all listened intentionally like Edie?! She listens for wisdom from elders and then she listens to those younger than her in order to give wisdom! It makes so much sense. If we spent time listening like Edie then I think we'd be moving in the right direction.
Edie, you are an amazingly beautifully made woman! I've written about how we can all learn from your example because that's been my experience with you. I appreciate what fast friends we became when I moved here. Every dinner you've invited me over for has reminded me that I have family here and people who care for me. Keep sharing that wisdom that you continue to gain because there are many people who can grow from it!
ps. I know this is supposed to be all about you, but I had to include the photo of you and Maddie! The mother-daughter cuteness was too impossible to resist :)
