Right now, the smallest task feels 10x harder than it should be. Filling a water bottle, putting on sunscreen, writing this blog all require herculean stores of discipline, will-power & effort. We are adapting. That’s my mantra of the moment. We are adapting. New sleep schedule, finding sea legs, rowing 12 hours a day, new chores & habits. We are adapting.
Hope remains. Intermittently, feelings of euphoria will overcome me. I will see two Golden Eagles swirling over an island, meditate on the moon rising over the Strait of Georgia or a pack of playful seals will poke their heads up during a great song on the radio. These bursts give me hope to keep pushing through the nauseating adaption phase.
Typically, it takes our circadian rhythm 10-12 days to adapt to a new sleep schedule. It usually takes 4-7 days to get your sea legs and sickness to fade. The work of rowing does not feel as onerous as the sleep deficit and the queasiness. Rowing is the easiest chore on the boat, second to sleeping.
I hear the voice of the Lt. Col. of the Royal Military College that I met once in Kingston, ON. “We must seek challenges if we want to see the best and worst in ourselves. In challenge we go to hell & visit heaven, but most of all we get to stare our true selves in the eye.”
I’ll let you know what I see.