The inside of the sailboat, Majestic Dream, is about forty feet long and feet wide, useable space that is. My Father, who I am traveling with, reminded me this morning, with a wry smile, of the familiar adage that everything should have a place and everything should be put in its place. This, after I spent ten minutes searching for my hat. Both my Father, Don, and his friend John were sitting in the cockpit, one at the wheel and one with the chart book in his lap for navigation. I looked at them. They both had on their hats. Don had on his favorite and customary Australian style straw Stetson. John had on a ball cap.
My search started in shadowy cabin lit by the natural sunrise light. Then I turned on the overhead lights in each part of the boat, the aft cabin, the head (the bathroom to those unfamiliar with boating), the quarter berth cabin, the main salon( like the living room), all the nooks and crannies. This boat was built in Taiwan. It has many, many beautiful teak cabinets, cubby holes and other various storage compartments. I finally got a flash light.
I was also searching for my banana style hair clip. I had packed only one of those thinking how many hair clips could I need? I had packed about ten t-shirts, thinking it would be ninety degrees everyday and I would need lots of clean clothes, but only one hair clip. On day six of my trip I have only worn two or three various t-shirts with many more layers added on some mornings than I had hoped. So here we are searching for the one hat and the one hair clip. Finally, I climbed up the steps from the cabin and announced I could not find my hat. That was when my Father teased me by facetiously agreeing that it was easy to lose things in a forty by eight foot space, one had to be on ones toes at all times or things got lost he basically side as he grinned at me. He also suggested my hat was on the buffet or side cabinet in the main salon. I searched again to no avail. I picked up my cup of tea and when topside to announce my defeat. The sun was just peaking over the sea of reeds and grasses along the Intercoastal Waterway. We were in Georgia heading North. The Herons, Cormorants and other birds were enjoying their morning, low tide, feast of fish. I took up my camera to see what I could catch.
As we sat and enjoyed the quiet morning interrupted only by the hum of our engine and the calls of the seagulls, John announced that he was not wearing “his” hat. He said, “Why, this is not my hat, this feels like a girls hat. This is not a guy hat.” Sure enough, he had on my hat! Now his hat is not navy blue, but it does have a round logo on the front just a bit bigger than my White Cloud Fire Rescue Logo. Under normal circumstances however, they would not be mistaken for the same hat. I know you heard me say “Normal”. So you are probably wondering what circumstances these are, if they are not normal? I cannot answer that other than to note that “normal circumstances” is one of those comments we often make. Normal is actually quite relative and varies between people, locations, even the day.
It should be apparent that normal for me, today, involved tunnel vision. I was not looking at the bigger picture. My focus was too narrow. I Laughed as John handed me my hat. I had not even looked directly at his hat during my search, I had focused on his face which is actually quite normal for me. I had, at one point, picked up his hat out of the wicker basket we put odds and ends in, like cell phones, hair clips, chap stick and cameras, next to the companionway and stairs to go below. This arrangement supposedly keeps them from getting lost. Assuredly it make sit easier to grab one basket and save the whole lot when a power boat comes along and their big wake sends us tipping and rocking.
Tunnel vision is something that happens when we are either looking to hard, our view becomes too narrow. It’s sort of a trick, since we think we are being so faithful and dedicated to our cause, we cannot imagine how we could miss the bigger picture. The Big Picture is easier to grasp if we start with the wide angle view. This morning I tried to photograph the Cormorant’s fishing and diving. These agile, mostly black birds, are very lithe and swim as easily in the water as they fly in the air. They remind me of sea otters as the dive for fish. If I set my camera with the zoom as close as it can go it is easy to lose track of my subject as he moves about in the water. If I am waiting for him to come into range to line up with the sun reflecting on the water I often missed the shot altogether. My Camera technically was seeing a big picture since I was zoomed in very tight. The bird, if found would almost fill the entire frame of the shot. It was easier to get the shot I wanted if I looked at the wider view and then zoomed in on my subject, narrowing my depth of field at that time. I do not claim to be a highly technical photographer so these are not photography tips. This was just my experience this morning. I want to learn how to be more focused and intuitive in my life with out narrowing my view too early.
This trip is a precious gift from God and my family I want to use it to grow, to be humble and to be a better person. I wear a lot of hats in my life, hats being a metaphor for the different “jobs” I do. I am a Mother, a Wife, a Daughter, a Sister, a Realtor, a Firefighter, an Artist and a truck driver. In 2004 I went back to college to advance my technical skills in Web Design and Marketing. I am a very right brained, visual person and Web Design will let me be creative in my job. I will not have to wait to find a spare moment in a busy life to paint. I can paint with design software instead of brushes. You can see my work at www.BrassWindWeb.com . Wearing all of these hats can make my life hectic, and at times confusing. I try to remind myself daily that I am, most importantly, a child of God. I pray that His strength will be my strength. Perhaps I should pray for his focus to be mine. I hope to lose things less and remember where I put them more! I ask Him for guidance and wisdom, I give each day up to Him so that as I walk along the wave of life I will notice the ripples that show me the way. The Big Picture is the goal.
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