Seafaring survival skills

How many people would imagine the idea of a mobile high school on a vessel that sails around the world, to teach people practical savoir-vivre, let-a-lone find an ad? Although I didn't join that particular crew, I have consciously had many other buoyant travel experiences.

I suppose I've always believed in possibilities. In the end, it’s not what you think that matters, but how you react to your thoughts and to what happens. You learn a lot from whale watching in the Atlantic, like discovering how to sit still for six hours watching and waiting and helping a friend contemplate losing lunch over the side.  Also, while sailing in a yacht race in fog off Nova Scotia, I learned to be vigilent and avoid many possible collisions, while floating along in almost no wind. 

My first sailing lessons as a teen involved shock treatment.  I was initiated and then caught off-guard on lake in Colorado during a freak lightning storm.  Later in life, while deep sea fishing off southern Florida, I held on tightly to the power boat and learned what it meant to return empty-handed. After ocean sailing off the coast of Chile as a guest on a turbulent day, I felt I was still in motion as I kissed the ground.  While Balinese outrigging in a Jukung off Indonesia in the Indian Ocean, I was reminded how to jive in a refreshing breeze. I like to recognize how seafaring interests actually seem to draw certain kinds of people to us.

One friend I invited into my life later told me she grew up the daughter of a Dutch sea captain. Her family traveled regularly by ship from Europe to Asia. You might say she discovered Marco Polo's spice run from different vantage points. Her childhood at sea continues to shape her life choices, to remind her the value of difference, tolerance and understanding. I don't question why I met her. We have a lot in common. Maybe that's why we were drawn together and keep in touch.

I have another friend who used to work in a shipyard and got friendly with many international ship captains. He shared stories with me about the names of ships and captains and some of their regular cargo runs. This friend told me if I ever needed a lift, I could look up certain people in certain ports. This friendliness caused me to think of a couple I know who decided to take a vacation by crossing the Pacific to Asia on an oil tanker.  If they'd been journalists rather than physicians, the public may have gained quirky insight into ship hitchhiking.  They even slept on deck!

You might say I'm fond of ships. One of my friends was sailing a Caribbean charter until his boat was engulfed by a tropical storm. He was rescued by a passing cargo ship and experienced adventure all the way to the it's destination of Amsterdam before flying home to North America to tell his tale.

Expand your scope

Adventure travel isn't everyone's dream.  All travel can actually be seen as meaningful adventures, if you chose to perceive a change of scenery that way.  Experience extreme altitudes, and deep sea diving expeditions into underwater caverns.  You can find the most challenging and unsual climates and cultures to stretch your sense of reality.  You can travel within or step far outside yourself. 

Some people travel based on their instincts, based on a recommended destination or, a sense of having visited a particular place before.  Some people travel based on a sense of necessity, to study,  find work, meet up with relatives, to live a dream, to pursue love or, to follow clues that bring one closer to a kind of destiny.  You may consider travel for any, all or no specific reasons.

As for me, I'm repeatedly asked about lasting impressions among the many continents and countries I have visited.  What compels me to migrate, to explore or seek new ways of learning?  I suppose that its in my blood like my Viking ancestors.  Yet, this instinct has been nurtured by my life choices.  I'm drawn to people.  I naturally go out of my way to forge human relationships. 

Developing friendships led me to write letters and share stories.  It wasn't enough to simply communicate at a distance.  I desired to experience places I had read and heard about.  I was motivated to create opportunities to discover them.  You don't dwell on why you think you can't. Rather, you just figure out how you will. 

Warped sense of values

Do you dream of a good night's sleep, but just don't seem to get it? You have your reasons.  We each have our own idiosyncrasies. Some people's choices of mattress wouldn't be your choices. You may even go so far as to think other people have a warped sense of priorities or values because they don't behave like you would behave or, they don't share your particular sense of humor.

Consider a couple I know who decided to buy a brand new car while at the same time, were adamant about saving money so they bought a second hand mattress. This may not seem logical to you. They exerted considerable effort sorting through the want ads, and fiddling with a map to find the home of the mattress owner. On the way, they decided they wouldn't buy the mattress if it was found to be owned by an obese person, because this would imply there would be damaged springs. After haggling the price down from $140 to $110, they triumphantly tied the Sealy mattress to the roof of their temporary rental car for a shaky trip across a new city.

The plot thickens. Once back in their new apartment, the couple discovered that in their haste, they hadn't noticed the underside of the mattress emitted a rather pungent odor. Apparently, they forgot to ask whether the previous owner had pets? Figuring the odor and discoloration would dissipate after a good airing, they put the mattress out on the balcony for a few days and hoped for a good breeze.

Amidst all the delirium of their move, would you imagine they overlooked the superintendant's flyer in their mailbox about a planned rooftop cleaning? Three days later, they returned from work to a surprise. The mattress on their balcony was coverd in brown sludge that had been dripping from far above. Even so, rather than throw it out, they decided to take a wet sponge and clean it off. They had had enough of their air mattress, but decided to stick it out just a bit longer. ..

"Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable." ~Maya Angelou

"A penny saved is not a penny earned if at the end of the day you still owe a quarter." ~Mary Landrieu

Release negative energy

If you think negatively about other people, or hesitate to forgive them for any pain they may have caused, you're actually carrying that negative energy inside yourself.  To learn to release that negative energy is the way to unburden yourself.  It would be as if you were able to see and understand everything that's going on around you, even when you don't choose to understand the language they speak or their courses of action.  This is a script you will draft for yourself to intend and spread happiness.

1) Send the person a 'good word' instead.

2) Let go of negative projections you have attached to yourself.

3) Read positive affirmations and express them with sincerity.

4) Consider the possibility of telling the person everything you sense is happening.

5) Write a letter about uplifting visiond. Seal it in a bottle. Toss it into the sea.

Lessons to grasp in your physical form

Goals are like visions we create as we the narrow the focus of our energies. In general, people evolve from general to more specific plans.  Often, people model themselves on goals realized by others before them.  Consider what it would be like to unleash the power of your unlimited visions.  Take steps to clarify what each of these points would mean for you in your own world:

1) Relish the intensity of experiences that delight your soul.

2) Accept everyone and everything to be your teachers.

3) Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone.

4) Let go of attachments to people and things.

5) Recognize choices you make or exclude due to fear.

6) Explore and seek to understand all emotions.

7) Live life to the fullest without regret.

8) Heed your intuition.

9) Express love and self-love with sincerity.

10) Learn to distinguish between your conditioned mind and other realities.