Not All Dolphins Want To Be Your Friend

So... I'm a very vivid dreamer. Sometimes my dreams just confuse me, and sometimes they drop crazy wisdom!

I had a dream, once, that I was swimming in a private beach inlet... just having a good old time already, and then a dolphin swam into my area!

 

I got really excited and swam right towards it, ready for dolphin magic time!

But something wasn't quite right... the dolphin was really rough with me. Swimming so fast and cutting so sharp, it seemed... aggressive.

 

The dolphin turned into a man with a mustache and got out of the water. I stared at him in disbelief and he said to me, all evil,

Not all dolphins want to be your friend!  

And walked away from the beach.

 

I woke up overwhelmed w/this feeling of bewilderment and betrayal from things turning out so unexpectedly!

This dream came, perhaps not so coincidentally, around the same time as this lesson I learned in 2006. 

Sometimes you need a marmoset.

Running the league in SD, coaching on my own. Every now and again, we'd pay my original coach "Buddy," to come down and guest coach.

But those times were few. 

And in the mean time, he was setting fire to his bridges w/our sister league in LA.

 

I'd been defending him from haters for about a year when he left, to start his own league. So he wouldn't be our coach anymore (not that he really ever was in SD). I was still grateful to the dude for teaching me how to skate. 

So I still invited him to SD's events. 

Whereupon he tried to recruit skaters in *my* league, for his.

Man, the heartbreak and confusion I dealt with over that one...

I thought (naively, perhaps) that as his student, he would be the kind of teacher to want me to succeed. I just wanted him to be proud of me!

But alas, not all dolphins want to be your friend. And, much to my personal dismay, not all good coaches are good people. 

 

If you know me, you know I'm not much of a shit talker. And I don't like to bring people down, either. So here's something cute:

The thing is, the truth is not always pleasant. 

And things/people don't always turn out how you expect. The real lesson, though, is to take all that bullshit and turn it into something beautiful.

And this was my time to be the coach that I wish I had.

I let "Buddy" know that I was grateful for what he taught me in my first 2 years. (Still am.)

But he had no more right to recruit skaters that I trained than his original coach would to take credit for coaching me. I never spoke to him again.

The closest to "serving" anyone I get it is to make them live without me.   : )

When I coach people, I hope that they DO realize their potential.

And I've learned to be PROUD of people as they come into their own. Not jealous, and definitely not like they owe me anything! 

And that's being a version of me that I feel really fucking good about!

So you see, sometimes when you lose, really you win.

As long as you can take the bullshit and find a way to turn it into gold.

I hope you have a super magical happy good day today!

Here's my parting gifts!