We are in our final port of the Mexican leg of our great adventure. The boat is falling apart around us*: port lights leak in the rain; blown gasket on the water heater causing fresh water to hemorrhage when we turn certain faucets on; little sun for power; water maker broken; and we are temporarily out of money. Note: I did not catalog any of the things I have fixed recently.
You know what is awesome about this scenario? We are happier than we have ever been. That’s not to say that we haven’t had moments of greater joy, but week after week our joy exceeds the meek attempts of luck and nature to harsh our mellow.
The only thing that detracts from my joy at the moment is this money thing. Our temporary condition will be put on long term hold sometime next week when we finally get the retirement check that will pay off Convivia and give us cruising kitty for the next 12 months. It remains stressful only because it’s a reminder that a) eventually someone in this family will have to work (thereby putting our adventure on hold) and b) that someone will probably be me.
That stress is balanced though. Today we spent a happy day together on Convivia. We listened to the rain coming down on the cabin trunk while we played games, read books, built Legos, and enjoyed our coffee. Later we ventured out into the rain for $1 tacos and flan at our favorite joint. As we walked the flooded cobblestone streets back to our tender, we were treated to the largest, brightest, most vivid double rainbow I have ever seen. It filled me with the emotions of youth and we—our merry family—rushed down street after street, looking for it’s end. As we pulled the tender out into the anchorage the rainbow faded into a magnificent sunset.
Days like this make it easy to regain perspective. Sure we may not be completely free from the manipulations of economy and politics, but we are MORE free than we could be in any life I can imagine.
* I may indulge in the occasional hyperbole.