I hate the Cold!

As a lifelong Alaskan, growing up in Alaska as a child, I was impervious to the cold. But as an adult, each winter, the cold started to get to me more and more.

So it's ironic that my favorite—my most joyful—practice now is cold water immersion. I swim every Sunday at high tide in Kachemak Bay. It is my church, my cathedral, my community gathering, my everything. I am so grateful for this practice.

I got started with cold dipping because my friend Brianna invited me to celebrate her birthday by taking a swim in Kachemak Bay. Kachemak Bay is notoriously cold—the temperatures range from about 35 degrees in winter to 55 degrees in summer. But really, it has two temperatures: cold, and colder.

Still, our spring dip was so joyful and life-affirming that we decided to come back the next day. And the next. And the next.

What began as a one-day celebration turned into forty consecutive days of swimming in Kachemak Bay.

We quickly learned that high tide was the best time to go. Kachemak Bay has the second-largest tidal range in the world—on some days, the difference between high and low tide is over 20 vertical feet. High tide let us get from the car into deep water quickly—and back out again with just as much speed.

After those forty days, we realized we’d embodied something—a habit, a devotion. We wanted to keep it up. But our day jobs made it impossible to follow the tide every day, so we shifted to a weekly rhythm. And now, after three years, I still cold dip every Sunday at high tide.

Three years.

This practice has become a cornerstone of my life. A reset button. A sacred pause. A confrontation with fear and anxiety. A direct route to joy, to laughter, to ecstasy. It is simple, but it runs deep.

Kachemak Bay is a sanctuary. It’s a meeting place, a mirror, a medicine.

It’s hard to explain unless you’ve done it—but if you ever find yourself in Homer, come join us. I’d love to meet you in the cold.