PERCEPTIONS

When I look at our chart and see the many waypoints we have placed along our route, I can scarcely believe the distance we have rowed; almost 5000kms in 50 days of some hectic and scary ocean. An ocean that has never been rowed from so far south, the Cape of Storms, from one continent to another. BUT we have not done it yet! There is a long long way still to row; some 2000kms. That’s quite a bit further than from Cape Town to Johannesburg, but a lot more dangerous! So, when people say ‘you are nearly there’ we are not.

Yet, in my mind, I am. I see that landmass in my mind, the one I will see in reality some two weeks from today. I see the Sugarloaf of Rio in my mind, the one I will see some three weeks from today. For the mind does not know the difference between reality and non-reality. Imagine you are having a terrible nightmare. A lion is chasing you and about to pounce. You suddenly wake up. Your heart is racing, you are sweating and are out of breath. Your body is reacting as though it were actually happening.

I believe, completely, that what you choose to believe for long enough becomes your reality. What is deemed impossible today becomes tomorrow’s reality.

And so, I trust, this arduous, physically punishing expedition will come to an end with Wayne and me rowing safely into Rio. I trust also, that a new expedition will begin. An expedition of change for the Earth, beginning with a change in our thinking. This I truly believe.