It was one of the best days of my life. I was 23, proud owner of a small 21-foot sailing boat named ‘Vision,’ and I was about to sail solo across the Georgia Strait from Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island, to Vancouver, on the BC mainland.
The Straits can be pretty tricky. An official advisory for boaters says: “Strait of Georgia seas are steep and close together. A well-handled boat often can run with these seas, but taken on the bow or beam they are no fun at all. Dangerous 8-foot seas are not unknown.”
However, as I hauled up the sails on my little boat and got underway I was not giving a thought to any difficulties that might lie ahead. I was consumed with the excitement of it all, the adventure of it all. I had loved boats, and the sea, all my life–of course, I was born in Britain, where you are never more than 80 miles from the sea.
Something very interesting happened about half way across the Strait. The wind had been more or less on my beam, but suddenly, it turned against me, which was not so good. Not only me, but my little boat was a bit confused about what to do.
But then, a few minutes later, a miracle. The wind changed its mind again. Suddenly it was behind me, and stayed behind me, blowing me with gusto all the way into Vancouver harbor. Oh, the exhilaration as Vision lifted to each passing wave, rising and falling in a dance of joy I remember to this day.
Obviously, as we get older, and I mean older, life changes. We can no longer do some of the things we used to love to do. Our resilience, and stamina, take a hit for sure. But you know what? Our spirit does not change.
Aging not only brings us challenges. It also brings us new opportunities to change, and grow, and love more fully the wonder of this creation of which we are a part. The wonder of little moments. The wonder of friendship. The wonder of seeing a baby bunny emerge from its hole for the first time. The wonder of seeing children at play. I could go on, but you get the point, I’m sure.
We are not done until we are done. And as long as we are here let us fill our lives with as much of our unique, loving, victorious spirit as is possible to us. My love to you, and if you have any thoughts on the above, please do write.
PS This is something I haven’t talked about for a long time. But it does take money to run a blog such as this, especially if you eschew ads, as I do. If you feel you would like to make a donation to support my blog, please send your donation to christopherfoster@comcast.net via PayPal.