Land Life is...Hectic!

Simpler times!  Photo courtesy of Lara at Forest and Fin

So it's been - what? - four weeks since we've been home?  Time sure does fly!  We have traveled to Indiana to be in one wedding, Wisconsin for another, drove up to Northern Michigan for a week and down to Detroit for a few days - not to mention all the lunches, dinners, drinks and get-together's with friends in between.  Land life - in a word - has been hectic. I have ridden in two planes, one (6 hour) train, and countless automobiles and I still have yet to visit some people on my must see list!  It's been so wonderful seeing friends and family - sharing laughs and stories, holding their babies and meeting their boyfriends - but we are really looking forward to being back on "island time" and getting back to our little home in Grenada!

Life on land, I have decided - is inherently more hectic than life on a boat.  This is not necessarily a bad thing but it is different than what we have grown accustomed to.  There are so many choices here!!  Where to eat?  Who to see? Where to go?  What to wear? Not that we don't ask these questions on the boat - but the options are divided by (at least) four.  Going to the grocery store alone is mind blowing (and kind of heavenly) after having only shopped markets and small mom and pop shops for the past six months.  The contrast makes one realize the sheer abundance so many of us live in here in the US.  On a boat (well, our boat at least), there simply aren't that many choices; everything on our boat has a purpose (usually two!) and a place.  We simple don't have room for more.  Everything we bring aboard must be functional and (most importantly) fit.  We literally have no room for the excess that is so easy to indulge in here (trust us, we are not immune to it!).  When you have no other option, the choice is simple!

Not only is life more simple in regards to things, it's so much more relaxed when it comes to time as well.  There doesn't seem to be this rushed feeling that pervades us when we are home.  Granted, I understand that this is due in large part to us being back for a visit, but I recall many times when we were living here where we were seemingly running from one moment to the next and I have heard many of my friends complain that their "just aren't enough hours in the day".  Perhaps this is just life in a large city?  I don't know.  What I do know is that - on a boat - life is so much more simple.  It takes a lot more work (for sure) and it is definitely not for everyone, but life has a lot less chatter and a lot less clutter.

I came across this quote the other day - and while I am not sure it sums up what I am trying to say exactly - it does echo the sentiment:

“Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.”

Jerome K. Jerome Love, Brittany & Scott