When dancer Lindsay Swoboda marries a Marine, her dream of following her passion for performing collides with the realities of their military life: back-to-back overseas moves, navigating pregnancy during deployment, and creating new support systems again and again.
As their growing family moves around the globe, Lindsay finds both tension and beauty in each new beginning.
She creates a dance program in Korea. Becomes a mother in Hawaii. Morocco offers healing for her marriage after multiple deployments. In Ecuador, a fire, riots, and a high-risk pregnancy remind her there is uncertainty even in what appears to be a peace-filled chapter. Looking forward to being closer to family after nearly a decade away, the Swobodas nestle into Virginia just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seeking new ways to cope with constant change and challenge, Lindsay writes her way through loneliness, self-doubt, and anxiety, and shares the burden and brilliance of each season with a community of friends.
In her memoir Holding On and Letting Go: A Life in Motion, Lindsay unfolds her military spouse journey with lyrical storytelling and sensory imagery, encouraging readers to champion both big and small victories, make space for grief and goodness, and find the courage to persevere.
Cover art painting by military spouse Lindsay Wilkins.
Lindsay Swoboda
Lindsay Swoboda is the author of Holding On and Letting Go: A Life in Motion (Memoir, May 2025). A military spouse, Lindsay lives and creates alongside her husband and two kids in Texas. When she is not writing, she’s either seeking time in nature or pursuing her other favorite hobbies of reading and sewing.
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Press Releases
“ … explores the ache of holding on—to dreams, identity, and relationships—and the fear that we’ll lose ourselves somehow in the process. Lindsay doesn’t shy away from the hard moments … But what makes this book truly powerful is its release—the moments of joy, unexpected community, rediscovered passion, gritty perseverance within, and clarity about what truly matters. Her storytelling is lyrical, grounded, and profoundly human. This is more than a memoir; it’s a performance of resilience, a reminder that in the tension of life’s choreography, there is beauty, growth, and grace in every step.”
—Corie Weathers, LPC, author, clinician, military spouse
“ … Lindsay offers her story in a way that it will speak not only to military families but to anyone who has ever wrestled with identity, longing, purpose, and change. … a delightful exploration of what it means to hold on and let go, to embrace the tension of an ever-changing life, and to find beauty in both rootedness and impermanence. … a reminder that we are never as alone as we feel, and that there is always a way forward—even when the path is unfamiliar. Readers who enjoy honest memoirs about resilience, creativity, and forging meaning in transitional seasons—especially fellow military spouses, mothers, and creatives—will find much to love in these pages.”
—Kristin Vanderlip, author, artist, and founder of the Pen & Mend Collective