Our urban world has been built upon the principle of avoiding the time consuming tasks of simple living. Basic needs of shelter, water and food are readily met in the city so there is no “wasting” of time in acts of meeting these needs. Cruising life is a voracious consumer of time spent on tasks of simple living. On a daily basis we make safe our shelter, tightening, repairing, sealing. We conserve our precious water or use the desalinator to make fresh water and actively seek out new food supplies from local growers. We scratch our heads and ponder the latest problem with the alternator and hope that our solar panels will continue to carry the load while we shut down non-essential systems. The younger crew members are also becoming closely tied to the rhythms of these needs as the Dolphin provides updates on water tank levels and Squid closely monitors battery charge. This cruising life we are living is heavily weighted by time consuming tasks of simple living.
So while our time is being eaten alive by simple living, we are learning patience and grace in the face of regular knock downs. We are leaning that the way forward is not always straight ahead and that the journey we had planned is not always possible. We need to keep our hearts and minds open to the opportunities presented by Plans B, C and D, knowing that we will find good things wherever we go, we just hadn’t thought about them yet. And we are giving ourselves over willingly to these forces because the journey is wonderful.
Bosun