One of our favorite places! :smiling_face: The journey over here was… Ok.

It’s Saturday And we wanted to sail and we tried sailing twice.

But there was just too much going on for us to feel confident. Zigzagging between crab pots, wind climbing to 20+ knots of wind behind us, fighting opposing current of 2 knots that we forgot to look up, causing decent waves and a narrow corridor between 2 islands. It’s just not ‘first sail of the season friendly.’

I’m also very nervous because our sails and our standing rigging (what holds up the mast) are not in good shape. Both need replacement. Placing force on them and incorrectly because we don’t do a lot of sailing just doesn’t feel smart.

Things can happen really quickly and I just don’t want any emergencies to happen.

I hear a voice in my head that’s attached to certain people in my life who would come at me and say, “Yeah, well you got to learn how to sail someday.”

“You can’t always keep making these excuses.”

“Quit being a baby.”

And so, I’m fighting these voices in my head that are essentially telling me I’m “less than” because of making the safe decision to motor instead of sail.

In reality I’m the one that’s out here and I have no one here to help me if something was to go wrong. They are the one that’s sitting comfortable in their home, not doing the hard thing.

What’s that quote by Theodore Roosevelt…? something along the lines of… If you’re not in the arena with me, I’m not going to listen to your advice while you’re sitting in the cheap seats…

I looked up the actual quote:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I just read that aloud to myself and tears started to fall fromy eyes. I AM living a life that dares greatly. There is no need for me to listen to those voices in my head telling me about my shortcomings. I will know victory, and I will also know defeat. And the combined is far better than a life of mediocrity.

It’s not the critic who counts… The credit belongs to the man in the arena.