Book Review: "Rowing Across the Atlantic"

I really can't say enough about this book...it is awesome!! Click on the picture on the left to buy it from Amazon.

At age 36, Roz Savage found herself dissatisfied with life, in a dead end job and an unraveling marriage. One night she wrote two different versions of her own obituary -- the one that she wanted and the one that she was heading for. They were very different. She realized that if she carried on as she was, she wasn't going to end up with the life she wanted.

Roz decided to reinvent and define herself without any outside influence. She wanted to step way outside her comfort zone to learn how to stand on her own. So despite being a non-athlete and exhibiting a lack of seamanship, Roz became the only solo female entrant in the grueling 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race. Her voyage of 2,935 miles took 104 days, the last 24 of which were in total communication black-out after her sat-phone malfunctioned.

Her rowing adventure is balanced with realism and humor, peril and perseverance, sharing personal demons, fears, frailties as well as her hopes and dreams. Her Atlantic journey was not an easy one. In the middle of the ocean, she faced her fears, insecurities and doubt. But one oar-stroke at a time, she finally reached the other side feeling triumphant and confident.

This is not to say we ALL have to row across the Pacific or even the Atlantic. But we ALL eventually come to the "ocean of our fear" and when we do, we have a decision to make. We have a choice about how we want to live our life...of what kind of obituary is written. Roz's story is inspiration to living a life according to our own design...realizing we DO have the power to create and live our own life how we want.

Roz's method of using the two obituaries as a catalyst, is the opposite of the "bucket list". Bucket lists are things we want to do before we die; obituaries are reflections of the lives we lived. Since all of us have the same destination of death and the grave, it's what we do between now and then that makes life worthwhile.

Over the years, I have often picked up the paper and browsed the obituaries. And I've never really given them much thought until now. I used to think that obituaries were simply an announcement of someone's passing. But what I never realized, until I read Roz's book, is that obituaries are not passive announcements; and despite our being dead when they are published, obituaries are not out of our control. We all have the ability to write our obituary, by living a life how we want, one day at a time...right now, today.

I don't want a loved one or worse yet, a stranger, to write my obituary. I want to write my own! I endeavor to live a life that honors how I want to be remembered. As I stated in my profile: In the long run, I want to live long and healthy and die with the nectar of love, adventure and peace running down my chin. I want to take hold of the tiger's tail and run in circles as she attempts to devour me. I want to dive deeply, love passionately and die knowing I gave it my all because it's all I had to give. In the end, that is what will matter to me.

There is a line from the lyrics "Black Masks and Gasoline" by Rise Against that says "Simply because you can breathe, doesn't mean you're alive, or that you really live"...so many people are simply breathing and wondering where their life is. Life is what YOU make it! I'm breathing it in til death forces me to exhale...