Friday, August 3, 2012

MY 5-YEAR PLAN

Last year, when my life was going through it's changes, I decided on a 5-year plan. In 5 years, I would have me a sailboat, and move onto it. Well, my 5-year plan turned into a 1-year plan.

My friends, currently living on s/v Flatulence, will leave it behind and go cruising on their other boat. I went to see her yesterday, and it just felt right... I will buy her and move onto her in October. I'm so excited! Then it hit me... I have a 4 bedroom home full of "stuff". I do not want to rent storage, so it has to go. I have two months to decide what I can't live without.

This is a big life changing event for me. CHANGE has been the theme of my life for the past year. It has been good for me though. I have grown as a person, and asked myself many times... "why not".

I adopted the motto: "Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you will regret the things you didn't do, more than the ones you did. " #19 on the 21 SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. This was a poster that hung on my wall for 9 years, but #19 jumped out at me one day... about a year ago.

Before that day, I would always tell myself, "you can't do that". Now, when I have that thought, I ask myself, "why not?" If I don't come up with a good excuse, I do it. This is one of those times, I couldn't think of a reason to NOT live on a boat, but a lot of reasons why I should.

Getting rid of all this "stuff" around me, will be a little hard at first. I, in the past, was a collector. I would tell myself that I might need that, and stuff it in the attic. Of course, most of it was never disturbed again until I had to move. That is when I would purge. It is time to purge once more. This time, instead of looking for things to throw out, I will be looking for things to keep. I will ask myself, "how long has it been since you used this?" In a way, it will be "freeing". I have met a few people recently that have that gypsy spirit, minimalist type people. I am gravitating to that mind-set.
My Paradox boat, TARDIS, will be completed soon. I hope to splash her this month. That, along with my move on the water, will be the beginning of a new way of life for me. I will spend most of my free time... on the water. I've been asked what my plans are for TARDIS. My plans are to sail her a lot. I plan to take her to Key West, where my daughter moved. Sail her to the Bahamas next year ( from the Florida coast). There will be many weekend trips in her, and you can read about them all here. But first, I need to finish her. This weekend will be filled with varnish, bending a bronze rod, a little epoxy, a little paint, finding more lead, buying hardware.... and the list goes on. Hummm, where did I put that wine glass.....

2 comments:

  1. What about Dale? Oh--you ARE going to rename her, right?

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  2. Seems that nobody likes the name of THE FLATULENCE! But, what's in a name? She will keep her name for now. In the future, when she gets all new canvas, paint, sails... and we head out cruising... she might feel like changing her name.

    Dale? We have not been together for a year now. That was part of the CHANGE I spoke of in this post.

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