When I wrote this original post we owned our first lake boat, Nomad but were still three years away from buying Kintala and five years away from going cruising. We have been luckier than most because not only did we enjoy our time on the lake on Nomad but we got to travel for five years on Kintala and have some of the most amazing experiences. Looking back on it, though, if even the only thing we had gotten to do was to sail Nomad on the lake all those weekends, enjoying the wind and the water and the white pelicans and the sunsets, we would still have succeeded at squeezing every good thing out of each moment. Many people plan to cruise and consider themselves failures if they can't make that dream a reality. If cruising has taught me anything, it's that I will have succeeded if I enjoy every moment of life as it comes, even the preparations to go cruising.
One thing I've noticed is that owning a boat makes you much more aware of the weekends. We sat around last night, after coming home from the lake, planning out the remaining weekends till the ice hits. I decided two things: A)There's not enough of them B)There's not enough of them.
While complaining about this very thing at work one day, someone told me that Tim and I have "too many toys". I've been musing on the subject a lot since he said that, wondering if I was somehow guilty of using up someone else's share of toys, guilty of paying an inadequate amount of attention to the duties that beset me at work each week.
And then...I think about my sister-in-law's battle with melanoma these days and I decide that one can't have enough time spent playing with toys. We spend so much time concentrating on the process of making money, to what end? None of us knows whether we'll ever make it to retirement in the first place, or who we'll spend it with. I guess I've decided to enjoy it now, and to spend it with my favorite person.
I've always loved a poem called Life's Clock which has one line that is my mantra: "The present only is our own"
The Clock of Life
The clock of life is wound but once and no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour.
To lose one's wealth is sad indeed, to lose one's health is more,
To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore.
The present only is our own, so live, love, toil with a will,
Place no faith in tomorrow -- for the clock may then be still.
Robert H. Smith
It's funny but if you look in the dictionary at the word "beset" there's a nautical application (for those of you non-nautical folks):
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
be·set Audio Help /bɪˈsɛt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[bi-set] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -set, -set·ting.
1. to attack on all sides; assail; harass: to be beset by enemies; beset by difficulties.
2. to surround; hem in: a village beset on all sides by dense forest.
3. to set or place upon; bestud: a gold bracelet beset with jewels.
4. Nautical. to surround (a vessel) by ice, so that control of the helm is lost.
[Origin: bef. 1000; ME besetten, OE besettan. See be-, set]
The ice is closing in...and I intend to enjoy the water while I can and the wind (however little there is) in the sails.
Tick Tock.
Weekends and the inevitable Monday
One thing I've noticed is that owning a boat makes you much more aware of the weekends. We sat around last night, after coming home from the lake, planning out the remaining weekends till the ice hits. I decided two things: A)There's not enough of them B)There's not enough of them.While complaining about this very thing at work one day, someone told me that Tim and I have "too many toys". I've been musing on the subject a lot since he said that, wondering if I was somehow guilty of using up someone else's share of toys, guilty of paying an inadequate amount of attention to the duties that beset me at work each week.
And then...I think about my sister-in-law's battle with melanoma these days and I decide that one can't have enough time spent playing with toys. We spend so much time concentrating on the process of making money, to what end? None of us knows whether we'll ever make it to retirement in the first place, or who we'll spend it with. I guess I've decided to enjoy it now, and to spend it with my favorite person.
I've always loved a poem called Life's Clock which has one line that is my mantra: "The present only is our own"
The Clock of Life
The clock of life is wound but once and no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour.
To lose one's wealth is sad indeed, to lose one's health is more,
To lose one's soul is such a loss that no man can restore.
The present only is our own, so live, love, toil with a will,
Place no faith in tomorrow -- for the clock may then be still.
Robert H. Smith
It's funny but if you look in the dictionary at the word "beset" there's a nautical application (for those of you non-nautical folks):
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
be·set Audio Help /bɪˈsɛt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[bi-set] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–verb (used with object), -set, -set·ting.
1. to attack on all sides; assail; harass: to be beset by enemies; beset by difficulties.
2. to surround; hem in: a village beset on all sides by dense forest.
3. to set or place upon; bestud: a gold bracelet beset with jewels.
4. Nautical. to surround (a vessel) by ice, so that control of the helm is lost.
[Origin: bef. 1000; ME besetten, OE besettan. See be-, set]
The ice is closing in...and I intend to enjoy the water while I can and the wind (however little there is) in the sails.
Tick Tock.
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