My life looks different from the outside now than how it looked prior to this "adventure". When I was still at work and spending weekends on Gypsy, I could be mistaken for any other boat owner. Now, unemployed, with the boxes of treasures leaving my house on a regular basis, it is evident something is "up"! Dan made us some cards, identifying us with SV Gypsy, that include our phone numbers, emails and blog address. The feedback is coming in: "...there is a lot of work to do to prepare..." "I could never let go of all my possessions, they mean too much to me..." "Who is going to make fruit pizzas and the roasted cinnamon pecans?" "What do your kids think of this?" "What's going to happen to Casey (my geriatric canine)?" “Why don’t you keep your house and things until you come back?” understandable comments and questions, to be sure...
This metamorphosis represents change on both an outward and an internal level. I will be absent from the lives of the people with whom I usually interact. Over these past 25+ years I have made the kind of important friends who have reciprocally shared our life’s evolution: the joys, music and dance, marriages, births, deaths… the daily ups and downs of life’s script. Because of this honesty, there is genuine joy from those who know me that I am following my heart’s desire… there is loss, nonetheless. I enthusiastically encourage these friends to visit us on our journey. Will that really happen? Then there are the people who only know glimpses of me and I of them. We see one another at the grocery store or at a poetry reading, searching our minds for how our lives have intersected, remembering the connection, sharing smiles and salutations, catching up on our similarities. There is a comfort in being known around town.
The internal change comes from another place. Within the past five years I lost both of my parents; people who loved life and lived it well. The suddenness of my dad's passing shocked all who knew him. Life is a gift; it is a temporary journey. This loss, for me, demanded that I more consciously direct my living. What do I make out of this one precious life? I have earned a respectable living, cooperatively raised two children, supported my political beliefs and integrated into socially aware communities that attempt to live authentic lives… I have safely lived in my limited world with the dream of places and peoples far away who dance to different music, honor a different god, value different principles. I am open to being a learner; let me be humble. Maybe the most remarkable suggestion to me is about keeping my house and possessions until I come home – I can’t imagine my life ever being the same; resuming life as I had left off. This cleansing process, as it is turning out to be, is verifying this extremely material investment I have assumed. I intend to live simply, yet with a richness that allows me to search within myself for what I make out of this one precious life.
about us
- susan and dan
- Our plan : To take a leisurely sail around the world exploring new lands and new cultures as we go. On the way we intend to place equal importance to the inward journey as to the external journey. On our path we’ll strive to live in harmony with nature and to travel in as self-sustaining, low impact way as possible. What Dan says About Susan: She is a nurse, a mother, a yogini, a dancing-singing-earthborn-spirit and a friend to many. She is my beloved. what susan says about dan: a wise and gentle man, respectful of the earth and all that is within; an accomplished student of the energy disciplines, a yogi. dan is serious and responsible about the things that matter; playful and witty in the balance. an observant with his third eye, his trusty camera, a photographer. an ex-rock climber, a kayaker - disciplined, patient and purposeful; all this and a humble man - this is my beloved... About Us: as Snatam Kaur says; “We are light, we are love, we are dreams…”