Merci!!!!!, Nicole, September 2015

Hello Healers Family,

As tiring as this weekend has been and I think I can speak for everyone in saying we are longing for a good, solid night sleep, the energy that was booming in the Healers tent continues to be felt in my heart this evening. I cannot stress how much love, support, hospitality, laughter, guidance, generosity, helpfulness and sincere kindness I received this weekend! Undoubtedly this was one of the most incredibly amazing regattas, I mean festivals (sorry Kathy Face savoring delicious food), I have been a part of and I cannot wait to share my experience with family and friends back home!

I admire how this team, although beautifully diverse, comes together as one system of people who are not selfishly concerned about themselves but are very active with regards to looking out for one another and realizing that they are not one paddler on a boat but rather a significant member of a family and when one part of that family is a not pulling their weight, the whole family can be out of whack! This team does a lot but one thing it doesn't do is hold back it's encouragement, support, motivation and love for one another and simply as an outsider observing, I sensed that right from the start and felt it so powerfully these last 2 days as well as during our Lake Merced practices last week!

I could go on and on about this weekend, this team and each individual that I had the lovely pleasure of meeting but I know the last thing you all want to do is read a long email after such a busy weekend.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to say a sincere and heartfelt thank you to each one of you! I know there are some people I didn't get a chance to get to know or chat with but I hope to meet you in the future! For those of you I met this weekend and for those beautiful, familiar faces from Toronto's visit (so wonderful to see you again), thank you for your warm welcome and for being so terrific to me! I feel very blessed to have met this team last year and have held the relationships I built very near and dear to my heart! I cannot thank you enough for everything this weekend and I am so proud of this whole team for it's accomplishments! We went out, worked hard and did our very best and I could see how mentally focused and driven you all were! I'm so happy to have been part of that! I want to clap for all of you for being an instrumental part of making my trip here so fantastic so thank you!!

As I leave San Francisco tomorrow I leave with a heavy heart and sadness but I also leave so incredibly happy as well because I now not only have a team to paddle with here and in Toronto, but I have a family that is more than I even imagined being part of while I was here!

Thank you all so much!

-Nicole