I may have talked about this before, but I am feeling too much in the moment to go back to check. One of the things I love about this cruising life is the opportunity it offers me to more fully inhabit the present.
This might sound weird from someone who spent time on this assignment in Alaska working on talks for Hong Kong and Singapore that I won’t give until next February, but the truth is that although I have to force myself to stay on track to be ready for what’s ahead, my head simply wants to be here now.
Today I went on a Zodiac in Alert Bay, British Columbia. The sky was bright, the water was sparkling, the seals and a Minke whale were doing their thing patrolling the bay. A dozen or more bald eagles watched the show, which of course includes us in our bright orange life jackets. As we moved slowly at the edge of a kelp bed looking for otters (no luck), I had one of those moments in which I said to myself “there is no place on earth I would rather be than right here right now.”
It is a joyous feeling to be just right exactly where you are. I came back to the ship ready to appreciate that the hot chocolate waiting for us was the only perfect thing for the moment, and that everything else was exactly right as it was.
i often get reflective on the last day of a cruise (I fly to San Diego tomorrow from Vancouver), and today was no exception. Looking back, I have a number of regrets about what I didn’t do or see. Those all pull me out of the present I am pulled out of the present by looking forward too, and since I feel as if I haven’t taken advantage of this opportunity nearly enough, I plan to request to come back here in 2020, if the fates decree.
Staying in the present is rewarding, but so is looking back and saying, “wow!” And so is looking forward and realizing how quickly (less than two weeks) until my adventure continues. Today I saw the first signs of fall in the turning leaves on the banks of the islands in Alert Bay. Soon it is on to Montreal for me, where the nip in the air and the blazing beauty of the passing of one season and the arrival of another reminds me so acutely that the present isn’t just now, but contains all that has happened and all that is to come. Goodbye, British Columbia! Thanks for the sunset ( below). Glad to have been present for it
