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I am honored to introduce you to one Susan Chaplin, an extraordinary spirit who made an extraordinary effort to connect.

The Earth is 4/5 water and sometimes I feel I've covered a fair stretch of its surface.

We have pushed the exciting NYAD 48 Times Square 48-Hour swim to October, to coincide with the one year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.

To spend time in Jesse's presence is to experience the intoxicating charisma he radiates. Here's an individual who has found the profound courage to beam a sincere smile, to find reasons to live a grateful life, and to refuse to waste the life....albeit radically different than the life of his dreams... he has been forced to live.

Sometimes you meet a person so full of positive spirit that it carries you up, gives you faith.

I can only imagine what the early explorers felt when they first arrived here, paradise islands at every point of the horizon. Deep turquoise seas and Rembrandt clouds enrapturing at every point of view.

Everywhere I've trained has been a natural privilege to behold and swim through....and each place has brought me closer to friends and colleagues and the citizens of these places who all share the love of the sea.

The locker rooms, the showers of male professional team sports….the hallowed last bastion of American machismo…have just been bust open, forever evolved, by one brave NBA center named Jason Collins.

The 24-HOUR pool swim in Palm Springs was a bonding community experience. But it was also training for NYAD 48...

I'll be swimming 24 HOURS nonstop this week-end in a gorgeous Palm Springs pool. Stunning setting, mountains circling at 360 degrees.

We, the citizens of the world, are heartbroken for the good people of Boston today.

Were you rooting for Tiger through this week-end's Masters tournament? Were you rooting against him? Or did you basically not care?

It was announced this week that Robin will soon receive the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. What a fitting recognition for a woman we collectively embrace as a National treasure.

As a human rights issue, Same Sex Marriage is an emblem of crucial, individual entitlement to the pursuit of happiness.

Living Life Large and chasing our dreams can take on many different forms. For some, it is accomplishing an epic feat of physical endurance, and for others it is living a life full of joy and meaning despite a string of tragic events. For some, it is both.

Want to Take You on My Morning Walk, Won't You Come?

If you live in Austin, I want to meet you at SXSW!

et's hear your stories. Do tell.
Not too long. Shall we say under 800 words?
We'll field your entries and choose to post what we consider interesting and what might touch our Xtreme Dream fans.
I'm terribly excited to get reading. So get writing.

Every single one of us has both exciting potential and challenging limitations. It's up to each individual to deem what's possible, what's going to demand tremendous internal resolve, what in the end is going to make that individual proud and fulfilled.

The wide-ranging excitement of discovery and learning drives the heartbeat of the Cuba Xtreme Dream expedition. In literally hundreds of areas, the education curve has been dynamic and stimulating.

Catherine Opie is widely known as one of today's preeminent fine arts photographers. At the young age of 46, just a few years ago, an astoundingly impressive range of Cathy's Opie's illustrious career was on glorious display in a 4-story retrospective of her entire body of work at the renowned Guggenheim Museum.

Whether from the blue or the red side of the political divide, you may harbor a high regard for the service rendered by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State over these past, troubled years.

his was one Super Bowl that lived up to the hype. No, if possible, this one surpassed the hype.

With Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in NY today at the Go Red Women's Leadership Breakfast. People thirsty to hear rousing stories of living a worthwhile life.

There are passionate and unique communities of sport all over the U.S. (all over the world) ---- fans of certain teams, certain cities, who gather far away from home in unified spirit for their old home team.

Grieving comes with an ironic edge in that, as painful as the loss cuts, there is also bittersweet longing for the sharp, fresh memories as they begin to fade with time and healing.

These are pros, delivering for the audience on the day, to the best of their abilities. Elements, such as freezing temperatures, dictate their decisions as to how to best come through, for the President, for the crowd. Come on, people, this is edgy, breaking news????"

I was surprised by the emotion I felt, tears flowing, at the powerful rendition of The Battle Hymn of the Republic today.

President Obama shed a tear with the emotion of those voices, those words His Truth is Marching On, too.

The list of heinous behaviors is long and sordid. We learned very little of what Lance actually did over the course of his career, as he sat in that chair and faced Oprah. But we learned a great deal about who this man is.

I am flooding with thoughts and emotions re Lance. Interviewed him several times over the years. Spent five years traveling the world on the Drugs in Sport story. Waiting for Part 2 of Oprah Friday night to solidify an overall opinion.

The campaign to end gun violence has an action vision, called Demand a Plan. They are just 50,000 signatures short of one million for their petition to Congress. Our Team here at Xtreme Dream alone could push them over the million mark.

My friends Kelly and Jourdan, just days before Scout's final moment, lost their Haley. Allow me to share their good-bye, which expresses so succinctly what draws us all to these special beings.

Our family has been a happy three all this time. Now we are two. We are sad. Yet we are grateful. Grateful that Scout was such a delightful and devoted companion. Grateful we have each other.

She was born August, 2005, on the streets of Turks and Caikos. There were six puppies. The mother was poisoned and died that first night. Three of her pups didn’t make it through the night.

None of us are immune to the holiday cliches: "hopes for joy, happiness, peace". Yet my hope for my own upcoming year and thus I swing that hope over to you as well is for awareness....

The crisis of my dog Scout's health at this New Year's time catapults a life lesson to the forefront of my days this end of 2012.

As President Obama puts it, we cannot stop all violence in this country. But Connecticut, the children, have pushed us to a tipping point. We the public must stand up.

We are a country once again immersed in collective grief. The questions abound. The answers escape us.

I was privileged to speak at TEDx Berlin over the Thanksgiving holiday. The theme of this particular conference was Crossing Borders...

My dog Scout, only just 7, has entered into end stage renal failure. It won’t be long now. No matter the daily chores, I find myself in that otherworldly, preoccupied state of heartache. My vet told me yesterday that I need to prepare to say good-bye.

As well-traveled as I like to think I am, I had never had the chance to visit this fascinating epicenter of European history. As they say in German: "Shone Tag"....have a beautiful day.

The memorial to the six million Jews who perished is an expanse of some 3,000 stone blocks, each one a different size, respectfully reflecting the unique individuals, each one, who lost their lives to Hitler's unconscionable perversions.

The TED experience online is a brilliant opportunity for all of us to tune into the prestigious TED speakers throughout the conference history, back to 1990. You can literally spend 15 quality minutes at a time and hear every speaker who has ever presented from the TED stages.

There are currently some 7 billion people on this planet of ours. About half live in sheer survival mode. Water, mere drops of clean water, are hard to come by. For the rest of us, we suffer varying degrees of hardships but we are largely fortunate enough to have choices. We are the lucky ones.

We are living the year of the 50th Anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War.
And this week, we find ourselves at the 30th Anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

How proud it makes me to show up at an event to give a speech and find
good people wearing the Xtreme Dream shirt....

Let's all of us get behind the President and follow the JFK lead (what can we do for our country?)....and let's be proud and secure that we the people have spoken in terms of women's rights to the decisions around our own bodies.

My dear friend Alexandra Hedison opened her new photography show in LA last night. Stirring images.

Mayor Bloomberg could have intellectually argued the points that would have backed up a decision to continue the city's beloved event but he abandoned intellect and chose heart.

Now that we are five days into escalating distress---people without homes, without water, without food, without gas, without electricity, without heat in sub- freezing temperatures---it is patently absurd to think that running a sporting event that takes police personnel, thousands of volunteers, closing of bridges that are already strained makes any sense.

Only six days until Election Day. It’s CRISIS TIME. Women, and those of you good men in support of women’s rights, come on now, we must stand up for President Obama.

Frustrating from far away not to be able to directly help the literally millions in need as Hurricane Sandy has caused so much destruction, even loss of lives.

...the sport of triathlon has taken off like a rocket ship. Just think about your own circle of colleagues and friends. Don't you know minimum a handful of folks who are training for their first triathlon?

But seriously. FOUR canines in one household, all making eye contact with the camera???

I do remember standing on the beach when I was 9 years old and I looked across at the horizon and I said to my mom "I wonder if anyone could swim over to Cuba."

As of yesterday, Robin's white count started to climb. Joy and celebration are finally the mood around the Roberts home. We will see that RR beaming smile among us very soon, I have high hopes.

"Daring to Live and Lead with Purpose." The part I know about is Daring to Live, period.

Thanks for these beautiful words. Laura. In the end, what it's all about for me, to hear that you were out there, experiencing my efforts, translating for your own life what you want to do with your time and focus.

This past week-end's 2012 Global Open Water Conference on the Queen Mary was, for us ocean swimmers, like an NFL Hall of Fame week-end.

"It's tough out here. Just the way I like it."

Steve Munatones, my good friend and the official observer on my swims, is hosting the 2012 Global Open Water Swimming Conference onboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, September 21st through 23rd.

Each and every one of us knows loss. We have experienced the death of a loved one. But how many of us have experienced the shocking, unspeakable trauma of war? Of terrorism? I have not.

My dear friend Robin Roberts is deep in my heart today...

I may not have reached Florida but I wouldn’t trade these past three years for anything. And I applaud Donna and Seth and Paul for reaching for their respective stars. They are each one the better for their ambitions.

Open Water Swimming authority Steve Munatones has issued a correction on Diana's total number of hours swum in her Cuba attempt...

We reached for the stars on the Xtreme Dream, and we saw a little bit of heaven as we were trying to get there.

I didn't make it all the way. But I surely did seize the time. I couldn't have done any of it a fingernail better...

We're sharing the following post written by Frances Beinecke, current President of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Diana arrived at the White Street Pier in Key West walking earlier today. She walked ashore to the cheer of all her supporters.

Here's a selection of videos from earlier this morning covering Diana ending her swim this morning.

Diana Nyad has lived her dreams. But she has always had one more unfulfilled dream: an extreme dream of unprecedented proportions...

Diana Nyad will arrive on shore in Key West today, Tuesday, August 21st at approximately 2:00pm EDT.

Stroking longer and farther than in any of her four attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida, Diana called an end to it early this morning (Tuesday), one day before her 63rd birthday...

Diana has been Pulled from the water.

Pray for Purple!

Monday 6:30pm EST 50:47 Swim time: If there was ever a moment during the Nyad swim when Diana was grateful to the NRDC and all organizations that support pristine waters—and there have been many of those moments during this 2012 expedition—the best one came at 6:30 p.m. today (Monday) when she was visited by dolphins!

Monday 7:30pm EST 51:47 Swim time: As of this evening, Diana has traveled 46.1 statute miles. She is well into the gulf stream and doing fine although chilly at times.

Monday 7:15pm EST 51:32 Swim time: Approaching the 40th hour of The Nyad swimming, her McGyver-like team has spent the afternoon improvising ways to prevent hypothermia and further swelling of Diana’s lips and tongue. As on any faraway expedition, you can only use what’s at hand and hope you have what you need.

I’ve never seen anything like it but apparently these 20 to 35-mile wind squalls are not unusual in the Gulf Stream. Lightning all around us...

Monday 3:24pm EDT 47:41 swim time: Shark diver Matteo Gazzale heads into the sea to begin his patrol watching out for sharks...

Monday 2:39pm EDT 46:56 Swim time: Our worst case fear was that she would encounter box jelly's going across the Florida straits and she unfortunately did run across them literally. We had to pull a piece of tentacle off her fingers...

We're out here in the middle of the Florida straits about smack dab in the middle of the Gulf Stream, as it is. Headed about due north...

Monday 12:00pm EST 44:17 Swim time: Isshin denshin, the Japanese concept of mutual understanding and communication, is playing itself out during Diana Nyad’s 103-mile attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida...

CBS News August 19, 2012 - Diana Nyad is making her fourth attempt to overcome the shark- and jellyfish-infested waters and become the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida.

Ops Chief Mark Sollinger reports on Diana's progress on this morning's Today Show.

9:45am EDT 42:02 Swim time: Seas are calm and Diana is swimming strong at 50 strokes per minute and has swum 33.81 statute miles.

2:30am EDT 34:47 Swim time: Since it is not moving, they are now trying to find a path out of the storm. They have decided to begin moving north and west

just after 8pm EDT "all hell broke loose here." Out of nowhere, a squall "blew up very quick" and hit the flotilla with winds at one point reaching 14 knots, pushing Diana east...

7:43pm EDT 28:00 Swim time: "Today was an awesome day."

7:43pm EST 28:00 Swim time: The sun sets over the flotilla as Ops Chief Mark Sollinger makes preparations for nightfall, when the jellyfish surface from the depths.

The Voyager crew reports that after a rough first night, Diana is currently savoring ideal conditions yet preparing for the coming hours, should Mother Nature decide to get moody...

On Tuesday, day before hearing good news of a possible weather window for the Cuba to Florida swim, diana and bonnie spotted a manatee right before slipping into the water for would become Diana's last training swim, the perfect taper....

Steve Munatones is the official observer of the swim and the editor in chief of the Daily News of Openwater Swimming. Here's his observations of Diana over the first 24 hours of the swim.

It’s a good sign when the swimmer is singing...

Diana is cheered by her team as she comes in for a feeding at 11am this morning.

At 22.2 statute miles into a swim that started yesterday (Saturday) at 3:43 p.m.,Diana, swimming steadily at 50 strokes per minute, looks very comfortable and confident.

Despite a difficult night of multiple jellyfish stings, on her lips, forehead, hands, and neck, some of them from box jellyfish, Diana Nyad has progressed 21.7 statute miles from Havana, Cuba...

Diana has warmed with the sun and confidently swimming freestyle again as the jellyfish experts report minimal sightings after their exploration.

Diana has swum 19 statutory miles and is encountering a strong westwardly current...

“If this swim is the equivalent of five English Channels, and I think it is, in terms of time, she’s just swum one English Channel, 25 percent of it backstroke.”

Angie Sollinger, Christi Barli, and Candace Lyle Hogan are staying up all night to report the good news: At her 3:15 a.m. feeding, Diana asked for pasta and hot chocolate!

The jellyfish experts have not yet identified the organisms, which have been floating in swarms every 30 seconds...

At 12.5 nautical miles, Diana has been backstroking for an hour, rather smoothly. She looks very good...

She was hit at 12:33 a.m. on her forehead by box jellyfish. There are jellyfish particles everywhere...

At 10:57pm, Diana was stung on the hand by a confirmed box jellyfish and treated in the water immediately by Angel....

At 10:45pm Saturday, 10.69 miles into the swim; no incidents at this hour...

Diana is swimming again after being stopped by a second jellyfish sting, this time on the lips

Diana has swum 7.13 miles with 95.87 miles to go. She is swimming at 50 strokes per minute in a 1 foot choppy sea. She is in good spirits and the crew are preparing for nightfall.

Diana’s love of and respect for the ocean and nature attracted the support of the NRDC, an organization of scientists, lawyers, and lobbyists devoted to clean oceans, because more often than not nature needs protection from us.

At 8:40pm Diana was stung on the neck by an Olindias formosa jellyfish...

Less than 3 hours into the swim, a shark diver was stung by a jellyfish. Nick gauged his pain at a 6 out of 10. Jellyfish expert Angel Yanagihara, Ph.D...

In her white terrycloth robe, bathing suit underneath, goggles in hand, Diana made her way on foot across the grass with a Cuban escort to where her escort boat was docked and sat awhile to chat.

She is flanked by kayakers protecting her from sharks. On top of Voyager, a shark expert keeps a lookout as well.

Walking back to her room to prepare for a much earlier start than planned, Diana is calm, adjusting. She looks at the harbor, saying, “the water doesn’t look all that calm to me here, but it’s all about the end, getting there before the weather window closes.”

From all points north, south, east, and west—like an energetic convergence—Diana Nyad’s Extreme Dream team met before dawn at an Oceanside dock in Key West Friday morning...

“Well, at least I won’t have a sleepless ‘night before the swim’ experience and have to get up at 4:30 in the morning,” she said, packing up her ready bag. “I’ll be well on my way swimming by then.”

If all weather signs and conditions hold true, Diana Nyad will leap into the waters off the Havana shore at 7a.m. on Sunday.