The Way Home : Home is the Way

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#1

When we ran off to sea in 2017, our intention was to dream new dreams for what we hope will be the second half of our lives. We'd made the dreams we came to San Francisco with in our youth come true – and then some. What did we want now? We promised ourselves at least a year on the water having a good long think. We ended up living aboard sweet Rejoice for over five years, sailing from the San Francisco Bay as far south as Barra de Navidad, Mexico. We lived for four years in Mexico, sailed across the Gulf of California three times, and weathered a global pandemic. It was nothing like we imagined and exactly what we needed. We are profoundly grateful for our time at sea, for the crucible and chrysalis that our wandering years have provided us.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://gettingfr.ee/2023/02/24/the-way-home/
#2

The Azure Sky calendar entry just reminded me that when we came to PT for the first time to try to figure out if it should be our new home, we went to have dinner with friends and parked in front of their home was a boat called Kestrel. In another investigation I looked up the local veterinary clinic as I was working as a vet tech at the time and the lead doctor had been a student of my sister’s at University of Florida vet school. Later in the summer when we visited again to look at houses we had a few minutes before a showing so took Kestrel (the human, two years old at the time, not the boat) to a park. The park was empty aside from a mom with a babe in a stroller. We began chatting and she said “oh, there’s a house for sale on my block.” and told us the street name. “We’re looking at it in an hour!” It ended up being the house we bought and that mom and I have become the closest of friends, Kestrel and her kid as well. There were a hundred other things like that that made the decision so obvious that this was the right place to land. For a while each time a new one occurred I would scream with glee. Ten years later I have had no doubts that there could have been no better place to dig deep and set roots. Welcome Home!

#3

Goodness, what a magical story; I’m so moved by your generosity in sharing it. Thank you, Xep.

It occurs to me that we had similar experiences in choosing Rejoice and Hartford Street, too, Rejoice turned out to be not only the same kind of boat but the EXACT same boat, renamed in the meanwhile, that we’d admired wistfully from the docks while we owned our first boat. Kismet! And all six of us buying Hartford Street late confessed that we’d had a little private THAT ONE IS OUR HOUSE feeling about Hartford just seeing it from the street before it turned out to already be in contract, which was so sad. That sale then fell through and we were able to grab it quickly and it WAS our house.

I share these stories because I want to expand the sense of magic afoot here: to my eye, it’s not so much that there is something particularly magic about anyone place as that when we are in the midst of major decisions we step slightly beyond the realm of rationality. When we are in the major pivot points in our lives, we step into the realm of heart and meaning and symbol. My inner mystic would argue that we become more open to guidance from the cosmos at these times and my inner skeptic would argue that we use symbols to affirm and reflect our heart’s choices; I’ll let each reader choose for themselves.

In sum: I believe that this magic is here for everyone, everywhere. It’s in the seeing and the living. I hope you each see some of yours today.