Of boats, sore joints, and dreams...

I've been talking about her (no, not my wife...) a lot.

Here she is, in her 'element' for the first time in three years, back from the dead (or at least a serious season of 'neglect'), happily enveloped in a, very, loving family.

Introducing...

"Aiyalon"

She's a 'Mirage 24' which is a cheaper, Quebec-made, version of the classic 'C&C 24'. Many Canadians who end up cruising south, and even further afield, started sailing lake Ontario on a boat just like this.

She's small enough to be affordable but big enough (just) to do some weekend trips on.  We're going to cram all six of us onboard and sail as frequently and as far as we can this summer. Yes, we're ready for the strange looks we'll get when two adults and FOUR kids pile out of her on arrival at a marina.

I'm thrilled.

My whole life I've DREAMED, and I mean intensely, of having a 'keel boat', a sailboat we can take long-distances, sleep on, eat on and start learning the ropes of the 'cruising lifestyle' on.

Eventually I hope to have a boat big enough to entertain numerous guests on; a boat big enough to spend most of our summers aboard (commuting back for Sunday's at THE WELL) and on which, one day, we'll take off for either a sabbatical (which would mean an 'Atlantic Circle Cruise') or perhaps a longer trip. We'll see.

For now, we start small, but at least we start.

(and I have the extremely sore body--it's like every single joint hurts--to prove it)

It's been nice to have the boat to work on.

The HUGE deal we were expecting to close last week didn't (surprise, surprise--scroll back a year or more on this blog and you'll see me going through the EXACT same thing this time in 2009) and it was quite distressing for the wife and I.

It took us a few days to get through it.

Now, we're waiting, feeling a little more hopeful, trusting Jesus a bit more, and generally happy and realizing that, long-term, this very tense season we're in will work out like it usually does. So I work on the boat, get my 'real' work done in-between trips to the boat, and do my best to simply thank God for His mercy.

It's cool to be the youngest guy at the dock with his own keelboat.  I thought I would have missed that 'boat' (I'm not 26 anymore you know...) but no, I'm still fifteen to twenty years the junior of most of my dock-mates.

Here's the point for you...

Last year, sitting watching the boats go in and out of Bronte Harbor (like we've done for years) I turned to Niki (my wife) and said; "That's it, I don't care how cheap and small we have to go, I'm buying a boat for next season. I can't stand sitting here watching for one more year, I just can't..."

Yes, I'd just watched 'UP' and was feeling convicted to 'live' the life that God had called me to regardless of how silly it seems, 'cause I wasn't getting any younger.

True story:

When the boat went in the water this past Sunday, Niki's Mom and her aunt and her second cousin came to watch.  They all cheered when she went in the water and didn't SINK.

Anyway, once we'd docked her, and while my kids were crawling all over her, I stepped away to the adjacent dock to just look at her.  I was feeling very thankful...

Then I noticed Niki's second cousin standing nearby looking a little down. See, her husband died suddenly (at 52) last year and she's still, understandably, processing her loss. We got to talking.

And she told me it had always been her husband's dream to own his own boat. They'd even taken an introductory sailing course but had just never gotten 'round to buying a boat of their own.

So, watching us put our 'dream' (small and humble) into the water had her feeling a little sad.

Fair.

Can you feel the 'UP' moment I had standing there with her?  Can you feel how intensely I felt (for the second time) the urge to live life to the fullest RIGHT NOW?

Reading this, do you know what it is that you need to get out and DO, right now?

Thought so.

Go get to it.

I'll be thinking of you while I'm sailing with my family this year, hoping that you're not sitting on the sidelines dreaming...

T