Central America-Honduras, Belize and Mexico-Deja Blue
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Work Is Prayer
A Nautical Odyssey of Transformation
A Universe of Stories
My universe is made of stories, not atoms: land, air and sea travel and the power of now. If I wanted to be a multinational soul, I couldn't do it in cities where I taught English like New York or Los Angeles, Paris or Tokyo alone—I needed to get consecrated by sailing on the oceans.
The Sacred Silence
It's a wonderful thing to get rid of everything and everybody and just go some place where you don't know anyone; where, as Melville said, "God's one and only voice is Silence."
If hollywood is loneliness under a Hawaiian palm tree, then happiness is solitude sailing through the fjords.
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Ship Happens
Living on a ship might be summed up as monotony tinged with hysteria. It's not real life but an alibi. It is like going out of your mind everyday—in order to come to your senses; and a fool who persists in his folly becomes wise. After 10 ships, yes TEN, I no longer want to cast doubt on perfection—America.
As An Art Director and World Cruise Coordinator, the experiences at sea turned my can't into cans and leveraged my dreams into serendipity—a thousand unseen helping hands.
The Healing Ocean
Who does not love the sea? The beach is a place of healing and joy. The salt cleanses us and the sun embraces us in its warmth. The ocean heals the heart, mind, and soul. Life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour but mood to moment.
Yet, the sea has never been friendly to me. At most it has been the accomplice of my restlessness. So there is no cure for this curiosity. TV is an eraser and Youtube and Blogger, a paint brush. My leap of faith to go on ships was recreation and re-creation and re-invention.
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From Material to Millionaire of Time
Money isn't the root of all evil, boredom is the root of all evil, a spiritual anorexia—the despairing refusal to be oneself. The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are, once you let go of the life you have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for you.
Now that I didn't need Power Point to explain my job, how much was I worth now that I was no longer in the w2 world of 9 to 5. I was a time millionaire. It was going to be about resourcefulness and not resources.
The Multinational Soul
I meet therefore I am—a multinational soul. I shrink therefore I am part of—and apart from American, European and Asian culture. The countries I visit and live in are as eclectic and restless as ports of call I "inhabit" for six hours or at most three days.
No Man Is An Island, yet after age 40, land is seldom seen and you can count your friends on one hand. I am an expat, yet not every country will do. I don't know why, some countries fill the gaps and others emphasize my expat-ness.
The cult of the amateur wanderers is growing; global souls who haven't been everywhere but it is on their list; for whom home is a feeling, not a place in the soil but inside yourself.
It's A Beautiful Day
According to the promotional material for the song, "It's A Beautiful Day" is about a guy who has lost everything and couldn't be happier... it IS indeed a beautiful day. Like Rolling Stone—a song about liberation. Clarity I kiss the ground.
"You love this town even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over and it's been all over you
It's a beautiful day"
You've been all over and it's been all over you
It's a beautiful day"
The Journey Itself Is Home
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. If the Zen poet hadn't said that more than 300 years ago, I would have. I am Basho on a frequent flyer pass, with complimentary mojo on take off.
Lessons from the Deep
Without risk, faith is an impossibility. My "leap of faith" to give up all things material was curiosity. The cure for my ennui and boredom was "Any place but here" and "I want to be surprised everyday."
I got paid in cash, visited nice places, had a hotel room and six all-you-can-eat meals a day! If the passengers were behaving badly, there was always a new group every 7 or 14 days to keep my interest.
When you're perpetually cruising, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yes in yesterdays on the road.
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The Wanderer's Creed
I know both sides because I am both sides: a tourist who doesn't know where I've been; a traveller who doesn't know where he's going.
I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list. I thought college was the longest vacation I ever took; but this Graduate School semester is a kind of study abroad in Nomadic Pursuits.
I am one of the privileged homeless. Is there a new kind of person being created by a new kind of life?
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Life Worth Watching
One day my life will flash before my eyes. I am making sure it's worth watching. My life hasn't gotten better by chance; it's gotten better by change.
By changing nothing, nothing changes. When in doubt, I always have chosen change. All these changes, however, were preceded by chaos, and the bridges I burned, have lit the way.
Yet, at what point is choice—the watermark of individual freedom and self-determination that we so cherish—becomes a point of diminishing returns, a "problem" instead of a solution. That is the paradox of choice.
Dancing Lessons from God
My bizarre travel plans have been dancing lessons from God. As soon as anyone starts telling me to be realistic, I cross that person off my invitation list. We are still friendly but no longer friends because they don't get IT that if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space.
There is no YES, in yesterday, and when you are sailing, you are what you are right there and then.
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The Paranormal Path
There is wise and otherwise—When my left brain is too good at telling my right brain what to do, I am a normal man, adapting to the world; otherwise I am trying to adapt the world to myself. So all my progress depends on being a paranormal man.
After all, "normal" is the setting on a washing machine—you know the spin cycle—same old, been there done that. Paranormal, on the other hand, is an art rather than a science and can't be easily explained or measured.
The Hero's Journey
The test to find whether my Hero's Journey on earth is finished is simple—If I'm alive, it isn't. Remembering this is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking I have something to lose.
There is no reason not to follow your heart.
From Cozumel to Honduras aboard the Allure of the Seas—the largest cruise ship on the water