Day 45 – The Inspiration Wall

Natalia Cohen By

Day 45 – The Inspiration Wall

Update: – Less than 990 miles to go to Hawaii!! Yeeeehhhaaaaaa!
– We are all getting really dodgy tan lines!

As well as being the ‘entertainer’ aboard Doris, I am also the mindfulness monitor. I am responsible for ensuring that we all enjoy as many of the moments out here that we can, or at least reflect on the journey so far and find the time to think about daily highlights and lowlights, hopes and fears.
From time to time I’ll throw a random question out to the girls or suggest we do a body scan or just stop rowing and watch the orange globe sink behind the sea to end another day or drink in a star filled sky.

The one luxury we do have out here is time…and plenty of it. Time to be practical, ridiculous, to ponder, to reflect, to think and to stop thinking.
One of the ‘easy’ questions I’ve been asking the girls is, “what is the most important thing in life for you?”

I don’t have my definitive answer yet and apart from the usual replies of love, happiness, family, talc powder (!!) the one thing that stands out for me is that I have always made an effort in my life to enjoy the journey. During the different eras and experiences that I have had, apart from the natural beauty and energy of a place, the highlight for me has always been the people that I have met along the way.

Whether for a reason, a season or a lifetime, most of the people that have crossed my path have had an impact on my journey of life. Whilst having the time to recount all these personal life stories out here in the middle of the deep blue, I find myself following many of the names of a person who features in a story with,

“They’re on the wall”.

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The wall being referred to is our ‘Buy A Mile inspiration Wall’. This is the ceiling of our fore cabin that is covered with the names of all our followers, family and friends. The names are all different sizes depending on how many miles a person has bought (£10 per mile and the more miles you buy, the bigger your name).

This wall of names is our inspiration, our drive, our motivation and for some of us, almost a condensed version of the people that have touched our lives and those we hope to still meet. I have been truly humbled and at times felt totally in awe of the support that we have received not only on a personal level from people that I know but also by the incredible generosity from random strangers as well as the friends and colleagues of the other girls.

We do not have words to express our deepest gratitude for your support and the money that has gone into Buy A Mile (BAM), has been instrumental to getting us here where we are today and will hopefully help us to complete this extraordinary expedition.
We are happy and honoured to not only have each of you in spirit, but also to have your name physically share in our long, arduous journey riding the waves of the mighty Pacific with us!

I can safely say that almost everyone that has touched my heart, features on the BAM wall and there is something quite magical about lying beneath it and drinking in all the love and support.
In difficult times, I know that this will be a great source of energy for me.

There will be many more BAM blogs to come from all of us over the coming months as we all have our own stories to share of friendships, inspiration, romance and insight gained by people that feature on the wall.
In the meantime, to those of you that are already travelling with us – THANK YOU, and to those that would still like to be part of the journey from Hawaii or from Samoa, we very much look forward to having you join us x

Http://www.coxlesscrew.com/buy-a-mile

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2 Comments

  1. Barney says:

    I liked the idea of the BAM wall (ceiling) before the journey started and I imagine it is quite full up. Future sponsors may like to know if they will appear on the ‘wall’ when you reach landfall. Is there any plan to add names, is the wall full, do you start writing names on the hull? These are the big questions of the day!!!

  2. Liz says:

    My daughters Eloise aged 13 and Amelia aged 10 both have their names on your wall thanks to their Grandad who bought miles for them. They came on board Doris in Marlow and are following your progress. Good luck and keep rowing.

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