Posted on Thursday 3 January 2008
It has been 12 months since we returned to the States. Unfortunately, this does not feel like home. This feels very temporary. It took a while to get used to living aboard. Several months in fact. In the first few months, living aboard felt like camping, like a vacation. As time went on, living day to day, breakfast, lunch and dinner; long passages, longer days just sitting, resting, being patient. Fixing mechanical issues became more tedious practices reminiscent to living in the states, in a home only with much less convenience. Such as not so many Home Depot’s or ACE Hardware stores. Our eating habits where limited to what we could keep fresh in our small fridge or in the pantry (dry goods) While on the boat we longed for a different menu, this became such a way of life that we feel now looking back that we could go back to that lifestyle.
Try to imagine moving everything you truly need into one bedroom. Include your kitchen, refrigerator, bathroom as well as bedroom and living area. You must of course include the fact that you are almost in constant motion since you live on the water. At first, it may sound so barbaric. But I miss it so much.
Things I think about when I dream about living aboard again are…
waking up with the sun…
falling asleep to the sound of the wind and the waves…
seeing the dolphins swim in our bow wake…
jumping off the boat into the water…
playing games…
reading books…
sunbathing…
walking miles and miles to get the civilazation… or to get away…
meeting new people, in new places…
solitude…
accomplishing a project…
navigating…
cooking…
I used to be excited about going back to Florida and living in a house. But now all I can think about is moving into a boat. The freedom of living on the boat is unexplainable. No ego, all are the same, no impressing others, all are accepted at face value, all are pure as the son of God. No materialistic selfishness, possessions are unimportant, family and time are important.
This is something clearly lost in the American culture. Here I notice the media, and celebrity ideals have pushed their ways in to the home of Americans everywhere. I feel like everyone is looking for something and do not realize that they already have it.
When I look at others who say they are going to leave and haven’t or that they want to leave but… I am sad. I know they happiness the want to know, I had it but I am not sad for myself. For I carry it with me daily. I remind myself of the happiness on the boat and I am complete. Free and complete, this life is only temporary… in more ways than one.
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