It’s been so long since I’ve written anything, let’s see how this goes. This is just a free flowing blog with my life updates, thoughts and feelings on whatever comes to me. Afterall, what’s the point of anything if we don’t have enjoyment in life? 

A little bit about my life updates first, I’m at a new Marina in Hampton, VA for the next year. We were quite lucky the tornado missed us the other day, but Virginia Beach wasn’t quite so lucky and a state of emergency was declared there.

I’ve been separated from the boat more than I like these days, tucked away in the hills of Vermont with my girlfriend. Life has a way of shaping in unforeseeable ways, it creeps up on you like “boiling frog syndrome”, the changes happen so gradually you don’t see it until you take time to reflect and look back at where you were 1 year ago, 2 years ago, etc.

I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting after losing my Dad and grandfather last year. It was difficult having to miss the funeral service because I was sailing offshore. The isolation and emotional burden of that period was difficult, but provided a unique opportunity for deep introspection. What was the result? We should optimize our lives for happiness and lifestyle. 

Make time for the people you love, try not to judge too harshly, live with intention. It’s amazing how quickly a year goes by and we truly don’t know how many years we have left. 

I’ve been thinking deeply about human social structures lately. I always try to meet people where they’re at and understand their point of view and how it’s been shaped by their set of life experiences. Sometimes that can be alienating, where you empathize too deeply and truly with all groups, never fully fitting into any single group. Having existed in diverse social ecosystems, I can tell you there’s not typically a lot of cross-pollination. 

I’ve come to understand that most humans are well intentioned and good people at heart that want to do the right thing. The worst thing we can do (as a collective) is to meet people from a place of negative energy and punitively criticize them for not adopting our views. We exist in a sort of propaganda machine, so no matter your view point, I think it’s difficult to assume that you are correct. With the way we receive targeted information through technology today, it’s very easy to create a mass illusion of “facts” much like what happened to the people of Germany during WWII. They were utterly unaware of the state of affairs in the world outside their bubble until the bombs came crashing down, shattering the propagandists’ illusion.

I think we have a couple of tools at our disposal these days to combat this, one being spiritual fitness, in my case meditation (but whatever works for you). Meditation helps us to stay connected with our intuition and our fellow beings. Okay, I don’t want to get too far off-track here. The other tools are to become very intentional with the information we consume. Brave Browser is a great tool to increase your privacy and limit ads in your life. It’s also important to curate a diverse set of information sources and intentionally develop a balanced portfolio of info for your brain to digest. 

I’m not gonna lie, this was a lot of fun. I just read what I wrote above and I think it’s beautiful in its “free-ness”… May we all be a little bit free-er, happier and more connected today.