Sale to Sea- packing

After a very tense fortnight, imagining all sorts of disappointing scenarios, I am finally packing for the big week.

With a smile on my face, and a normal pulse rate.

I say tense because I had a person indicate to me that I would not make the distance and I was not training enough. Suffice to say the words must have acted on some sort of level, and despite being a confident person in general I began to have irrational self doubt. The sort that can really destroy strong mental preparedness.

Having said all that, I am most certainly unsure how I will go across such distances as we will attempt particularly in the first two days (Wednesday 48 kms, Thursday 40 kms). But it is one thing to be open to the fact that a goal should be shifted from "I will get to the end' to "I will have a rockin time" and another for you to expect not to make it. This is what negative dialogue does to mental preparedness.

And so I reflect on the reason why I am participating in the first place.

Imagine a world where every day people focus on what you can't do rather than what you can. Imagine that the physical world around you (sidewalks, shops), people around you (those that pass you with a wide berth, or look disparagingly or worse with pity) all tell the same story. You can't do that, you can't come in here. You don't belong.

This is what some people with a disability face every day of their lives.

Frankly, that is all BS. Large stinking piles of it. We, meaning all of us, can do something if we put our mind to it. And even if we don't succeed in that way we should bloody well be given the encouragement to try. The Sale to Sea challenge is an opportunity for people of all abilities to try and that is a blessed thing.

So thanks to all my beautiful friends who responded to my request to send me quotes that inspire them. I have compiled a double sided laminated board that will sit in the deck pocket of my kayak. Like a little pulsing positive energy source! I have not used everyone's offerings, but I certainly read all of them, and in combination there was some healing power helping me to erase the stupid off the cuff comments of someone who didn't realise their own toxicity.

To trying, and seeing what happens next! See you on the other side, this chick is off paddling.