Being Flexible and Mindful

We’ve been on the boat for a few days now.  Instead of staying in our usual places around Pittwater or around the top of Broken Bay we travelled way down into the national park out of internet and phone range and, for a while, in blissful solitude.  Then the weekend came & brought the boaters out in force to every little bay and inlet.  So we’ve started our trip back up to our mooring and home but still taking our time.

I really like things – anything – to be as good as possible whenever possible.  I wouldn’t consider myself a ‘control freak’ although friends and husband George may contradict that from time to time.

 

So as we were standing on the beach at Clareville with the dingy inflated and just about to load in the groceries for the week away I shouted a 4 letter word beginning with F rather loudly.

“What?” George said startled by my outburst.

 “We didn’t get the clothes bag sitting on the bed!  That’s got all our clothes, my books, our glasses, toiletries, my camera and things for blogging!  Everything is in it.  We have to go back home.”  I shouted while peppering my words with even more expletives beginning with S & GD & F and then the same all over again. 

I was really pissed at myself for forgetting this all important bag.  In fact I was almost at the point of trying to blame George.  You know how it goes.  You can’t believe you were that stupid so it must have been someone else’s fault.  But I didn’t go there.  After all he has his own chores.  My responsibility revolves around food and personal effects.

George looked at me knowing that I truly did not want to go away without my “stuff” but also knowing that the drive home is 45 minutes to an hour there plus the same back and the trip back would put me right bang in the middle of 5:00 traffic.  In somewhat uncharacteristically calming tones he laid the options out for me and, when done in an unemotional sensible way, I knew going home would not be the best choice.

“But what will we do?  Everything is in the bag.”  Moving from the “Oh Shit” mode to pitiful.

“I told you not to take so much off the boat when we got back!  We’ve got some clothes still on board and spare glasses and I’m sure there are plenty of books.  You’ll just have to make the best with what you have”, George told me staying in super sensible mode.

And that’s what I’ve done…. And the reason why there are no photos with this blog.  I’ve been so flexible I’ve amazed myself.  I found a couple of t-shirts left.  I even found 1 pair of underwear, a spare toothbrush, some gym leggings, shampoo and a jar of moisturizer all left on board.   And all this week I’ve enjoyed every minute.

As I approached retirement I promised myself I would relax much more and practise being flexible and mindful … Take it easy and live in the NOW.

When I left work at the end of June 2012 it was a busy time.  I travelled to Atlanta to spend time with Jae and friends there and then came back to our many tasks getting ourselves, the house and the boat ready for our trip last year.  All that activity was followed by the absolute WOW factor of the trip north and the Louisiades so, all in all, it’s only recently that I’ve been faced with down time.  I’ve found flexibility and mindfulness don’t come automatically.  It’s something you have to work at.  Letting go of wanting everything to be your own idea of “perfect” is hard but once you do the world doesn’t fall apart.