It is very serene to wake up, walk outside and be at the
helm of a boat, feeling the sea breeze on your face, the smell of salt in the
air, and pink clouds filling in behind palm trees. Back in the galley, the smell of coffee
filled the air. We began our Friday just
like every Friday to follow by joining in a 45 minute meditation. When I entered the galley, there were three
pillows arranged around the center of the room.
I have slowly been learning the routines of the ship and decided to join
this morning’s optional meditation. It
was good to get a feel for the endeavor while there were only three of us so I
could be ready to find my spiritual self with the rest of the crew. The longest I have ever sat in meditation,
before today, was 30 minutes of twitching.
Wanting to make a good impression through my personal meditation skills,
I practiced my scuba breathing. After
only 20 minutes my entire leg was numb and I had no control of it. Luckily Yasmina broke first and began
stretching her legs and adjusting her position.
I spent the remainder of the time thinking of anything to get my mind
off the fact that I couldn’t move or make a sound. Periodically, I would enter a lackluster
gazing meditation by glazing my eyes over and watching Carol, who was in a deep
spiritual place. I am pretty sure that
she neither moved a muscle nor blinked her wide open eyes the entire 45
minutes; it was amazing!
Continuing with the ships routine, Saturday morning we will
partake in a yoga-esque stretching exercise on deck. Carol describes it as something more than yoga;
we will be ‘putting our bodies in positions that challenge our habitual
movements’. Mir is known as the ‘hippie
boat’, partly because of her condition, but mainly because of the way she is
operated and the crew she attracts. I
have heard what the typical routine involves, but we are all excited to see
what happens when Sativan arrives in a week.
Sativan is a friend of Carol’s, and Yasmina’s, and is a spiritual
Brazilian. They say he is a very
passionate man, he has the ability to alter your thinking simply by answering
any basic question, and he is a practitioner of the Mayan calendar. It is going
to be an interesting few weeks of watching these diverse personalities mesh and
letting myself become a part of it. One
of the expats at the bar last night said the only thing I need to do while on
Mir is ‘let it happen’. Not entirely
sure what he meant, but he nodded his head and repeated it.
One of the expats asked Carol what we did on our travels,
and I learned about many of the grassroots programs Gaie and Laser establish in
the islands they sail to. Most involve
educating the local communities about the coral reefs and marine life,
aquacultures, waste water treatment, and trash disposal. They have already received pledges from 5 of
the 7 islands of Anambas outlawing the cultivation of sea turtle eggs! I’m excited to finally meet Gaie and Laser
next week and learn all I can about what they do and how they got involved in
such an adventurous lifestyle. Their
dream is to inherit a place where they can establish a commune for everyone
involved in saving the planet.
Today was full of rain again, but this time the leaks were
fixed up pretty well. I spent the entire
day in the foxhole inhaling the fumes of enamel paint, getting wafts of incense
each time I passed through the galley, and listening to cannon and machine gun
fire from the neighboring military base.
When I came outside to enjoy the cool breeze and check my email, I actually
felt the boom of one of the cannon’s firing.
It is an interesting night tonight because the sky is continually lit up
by a falling flare and the air is full of the sounds of heavy weapon fire.
Hope all is well with everyone, its been nice to catch up
with a few people on skype. Now im off
to finish Happy Gilmore!
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