sittin’ on the dock

For a few minutes this evening, I thought I was Jimmy Buffett.  Not the rich mellow singer Jimmy Buffett, but the flip-flops-beach-shirt-beach-pants-wearing-sipping-a-cool-beverage Jimmy Buffett. I was sitting on the dock in the cool of the evening enjoying the company of my wife and the dog, watching Nature’s fireworks off to the North.  I said to my partner in leisure, “I’ve turned into Jimmy Buffett.”  And a messenger from ON HIGH said “What’s wrong with that?”  Okay, maybe it was she who was sitting next to me, but it was like one of those “Aha!” moments.

I am a recovering Religious Fanatic.  Not the good kind.  I have to stop and remind myself a lot that life is supposed to be fun and free and devoid of any but the most simplest (yes that is a real word) rules.  Love other people, love Whomever you credit with creating all things, and love yourself.  I don’t know if the order is important, but until you learn to be okay with yourself, you will never be okay with anyone else.  So tonight I had to be reminded again that it is okay to just sit and feel the breeze on my face and experience the falling of the evening and do. . . absolutely . . . nothing.

I went to work on my boat this morning.  I thought it would be a few minutes, an hour max.  4 hours and some bad language later, I finally got it to start.  My mechanical skills are somewhat boat impaired, but I now know more about a two cycle outboard motor than I ever cared to know.  When it started and ran and we were able to actually drive it over to the house, all those hours seemed to become just another adventure.  One day, I’ll laugh about it, not today.

Of all the places I thought I would be at this time of my life, living on a canal in Florida was nowhere in the picture.  I get overwhelmed by the refurbishing of this house and forget the importance of living.  When you hear the stories of people at the end of their lives and their regrets, well, I want to say at my life’s end:  I lived.

Let’s do life together again soon.