In Flight.

From a cruiser’s perspective, modern air travel is quite tedious. You have to drive somewhere outside of town, stand in lines, pass security checks, wait some more, squeeze yourself into a small seat. And there you sit until you’re released. I try not to think about it while in the situation, and writing about it, while in the air somewhere between Phoenix and Chicago, makes my borderline phobia painfully clear to me.

Prepping for departure on a boat is very different. First we check the weather, then us the crew, then the boat’s systems. If all is clear, we go. It’s always exciting. It’s never hectic. I am always looking forward to the passage ahead. Whereas with air travel, I only want to get there. Although when I am lucky and get a window seat, it’s sometimes fun to look out over the vast sky and take aerial pictures of the earth.

Travel on a sailboat is rarely only about getting places. For me, every moment is fun, exciting, often challenging. I am hot or cold, in the wind or salt spray. It’s about every moment. Tasting time. Living consciously every moment on land is difficult. So wrapped up in the every day, we rush at a speed, which simply doesn’t allow us to halt for a moment and see.

Now, with smarter devises, most of us don’t even look up. Maybe for a minute to take a photo to post on social media. Or even while looking up, our head is so full with schedules and thoughts, that we don’t see much what’s around us. Kind of like air travel, we are moving to get there, rushing through life to arrive at a goal.

I never really understood, what living in the moment means. Possibly, I was too busy to experience the moment. To live in the moment was reserved for Buddhist monks and retirees. This concept was way to esoteric for me, that I could envision it in my everyday life. Made me think of people sitting in meditation. Possibly the only way to experience the moment in a busy world. I never had enough patience to sit and clear my mind completely, nor did I see much benefit in that. We are processing information nonstop, why stop, I thought. I found that forced and even unnatural. I guessed that it could be beneficial. But how and where to start?

Then we went sailing and there it was. Looking over the water and watching the waves, I can sit for hours just doing that and smelling the air. There are moments while sailing, that I am not doing anything. The mind is alert and the sea is just there. Maybe it is the ocean, the sea, the endless water that put me into that spirit. It is a state of mind, as if the sea has energy and pulls my mind towards it and all thoughts with it and out of my mind. I love that feeling. This state of mind is addictive. I hear that people, who meditate, need it. Like coffee or alcohol, if the mind likes it, the mind wants more.

Meditation is arguably the most beneficial form of an addiction. And the cheapest.
Then there is love, art, nature, food and sports… And there is sailing.