Well, Be the Ship fam, it was not (simply) a battery switch that needed repairing. IRENE needed a new alternator. You know what takes a long time? Figuring out that IRENE needs a new alternator and then removing the engine cover/shield and taking the old one out. You know what is a miracle? The marine store in the neighboring town just happens to have the exact one we need IN stock. From there it just gets more neighborly when an employee at the boatyard who lives in that town volunteers to pick it up after work (no delivery) and bring it to work with him in the morning. 7:30AM, knock on the door. Time to get the new one installed.

As the details of this particular adventure were emerging, I made a list of immediate things to be grateful for. Here’s the list that emerged as the alternator was being pulled out:

• We are in a safe place on the dock at Zimmerman Marine.
• We are in a welcoming place (Zimmerman and Holden Beach).
• We have met a very competent marine technician / electrician / captain. His name is “J”.
• Zimmerman’s does not charge a dock fee, in addition to the hourly rate, while your vessel is here being repaired.
• We are close enough to the beach that I can ride my scooter there.
• The boatyard is next to Lou Lou’s Waterfront Restaurant.
• The sun is shining.
• There is a convenience store 1.5 miles from here.
• I have several paintings to finish.
• Doing, can also be a soft energy such as, taking time for unfinished things, breathing, moving, stretching, napping, reading, painting, writing, meditation, research, observing everything.
• We have cell service.
• The laundry is done.
• IRENE got a wash down this morning.
• No hurricanes nearby.
• Only a few days of travel until we reach Charleston.
• We have air conditioning.
• We have choices and free will.
• The sun is shining.
• We are breathing.
• We have a lot to be grateful for.

Writing that list reminded me of how therapeutic it can be to write a list. Just a list of items that flow through your body mind complex because you focus on listening to it. I can think of a multitude of other lists that I will write for myself, in the future. Right now I am going to extemporaneously type of list of unedited things that cross my mind.

• If you breath intentionally and focus on the light in your body, you can expand your energy by several feet. (Try this.)
• Sushi. I love sushi. Yesterday, David and I had those clear little salad wraps with Thai Chili Sauce. OMG, my brain melted.
• It is not hard to be nice to other people. Hold them in your mind or send them love from your heart chakra even if they are physically far away or standing next to you. I focus on my belief that we are all one from the same one infinite creator.
• IRENE. I am standing and writing at the chart table. She’s so rock solid. Nordic Tugs have a ton of ship integrity. If you don’t believe that you are the ship; if you’re still waiting for your “ship to come in”; take heart, look inside and at least, know you’re a tugboat and you gotta love that.
• Chris Stapleton. Listening to him sing resonates at another octave for me. We are listening to one of my Pandora playlists and his songs get me singing along . He and I harmonize like magic is happening.
• That one has me dancing too and I am reflecting on movement and how important it is in my life. It feels like I write about this aspect of myself a lot. My definition of movement is huge. From the most subtle forms of breathing, being in meditation, to dancing on the deck, it is all UPlifting and expansive, necessary and so attuned to honoring the body we find our self in. It literally moves us out of this density and into more “light” places and higher and higher frequencies.
• Got some pictures over the phone today from Anna. God, they moved me. I shared them on a group text with my siblings and my sister Kathy responded about how being a grandmother can fill your heart. I have to agree. And seeing your own child becoming their own person, what a friggin’ courageous heart breaking open act that is. I mean it. Every age, every milestone, every transition, every move, every love, every hope or dream that are theirs, they’re like yours too and your heart breaks open, again and again.
• Schools are reopened. One of my favorite people on this planet has announced this will be her last year teaching. If I have any regret, it’s that I won’t be there being her colleague through it. I believe everyone born, got a gift. Her gifts are many, but the one that gives me goosebumps (truthbumps my friend Carol calls them) is her deep knowledge and wisdom regarding young children and literacy. When presented with the choice of going deep or long, she said, “no way”, and continues to go both deep and long. This is so important. We need this love of literacy, of reading, of words, of writing, of communicating, of embracing the alphabet, literature, across all languages, in our lives and in our children’s lives.
• I am crying now. (Her humility overwhelms me.)
• Lastly, what has come up is the concept of stories. How we all have so many stories that they would fill books and libraries and lifetimes of telling. The irony is, when we focus on being present here and now, the current composition; those stories are the ones that change our lives. Life doesn’t happen in reverse and stories that are exclusive to the past, they’re a kind of addiction to people; I noticed this. Honor them by loving now. Imagine it forward. Bring it all along for the ride, As Baba Ram Dass said, “Be here now.”

Here’s a now story.. Something bizarre and slightly disconcerting happened Thursday night. After the boatyard closed they locked up the gate with a cable and padlock. We had the combination so we could walk to Lou Lou’s for dinner. As we were sitting on Lou Lou’s deck enjoying dinner, we watched a decrepit sailboat pull into the slip next to IRENE. It was dark as we were walking back to the boat and we saw the couple from the sailboat opening the gate and leaving. As we passed them, the man said to us, in a a kind of Boris and Natasha cartoon accent, “Vee vill see you in dee morning”. OK, right? They had the gate code. At daylight, the staff of the boatyard were perplexed about the boat and as it turned out, it was a total wreck. The boat had been abandoned there. All registration numbers had been removed and the serial number erased. Apparently, these things happen. Now it is on the boatyard to recycle it. No easy or inexpensive feat. Also, it turns out that the folks who do the dirty work of abandoning the boats get paid handsomely by the boat’s owner. My heart goes out to the folks at Zimmerman who are all employee owners and will bear the cost to responsibly deconstruct the boat. She had been a seaworthy vessel at one time and was built with good bones. Keep floating, little boat.

In other news, the alternator was successfully installed and Zimmerman’s let us stay over Friday night so we could do some provisioning and make a trip to the pharmacy for Davo. Miracles do prevail. Good people abound. We had a lovely Friday night on the dock. It is flounder season so there were a lot of boats out casting nets for bait and others fishing for flounder in the ICW. Lou Lou’s had a band on the porch and they played a lot of songs we knew. We prepared a simple dinner, followed by chocolate. A bright and beautiful crescent moon rose above us and in the moonlight, the abandoned boat looked like a respectable little vessel. Life goes on. Best to have a blessed point of view in the this life.

Holden Beach has been a good stop for us and we are infinitely grateful for our new boatyard friends. At the same time, we are happily looking forward to the amazing natural world that South Carolina has in store for us. Onward, friends.