It’s 4:30 and I’m wide awake.
It’s normal for me to be up so early, as this is my day-dream time.
My days have a definitive pattern. I wake up quite early. My day-dreams run wild like a broken tap in the early hours of the morning and are usually connected to my night-dreams. I believe this is the most important of processes and a time all men should weigh with extreme importance.
I often write my book, peruse over charts, or study weather patterns during the wee hours of the morning. Many times I just lay in my hammock looking at the stars contemplating my navel. Almost every day I watch the sunrise, and ring in another magnificent day in my life with a cup of hot, black coffee. Sometimes I return to sleep at six or seven or throw myself into a boat project, every day is a bit different.
What a luxury it is to wake up when we want and sleep when we want. Is it luxury or our human right? Don’t ask me I’ve almost forgotten what the sound of an alarm clock sounds like.
This morning I’m thinking about my wife. Stranger thoughts have never crossed my mind as I’ve never honestly seen myself as a happily married man.
I’m a pretty easy going guy. My relationship with my fellow-man is simple. If I don’t like you I won’t give you the time of day, and if I do like you I’ll travel far off my path to lend you a hand. My relationship with women however has always been more complicated. 
I suppose from a woman’s perspective I’m a bit of a cave-man. I believe in very simple, instinctual, and natural man/woman relationships, not very popular these days. The way I see it, my responsibilities as a man (husband) are to protect, provide a home, and nourish my woman with Love and food, pretty simple? Cars, technology, and modern convenience have nothing to do with it.
Carla is the best wife I could ever ask for. She is happy with a glass of room-temperature water and a little fresh fruit and produce. She enjoys the occasional fish or lobster I take and is the lowest maintenance woman I’ve ever known, and I’ve known a few. I must admit, I’m happily married.
A few weeks back she did something that was the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. She thanked me for her time.
Carla has started writing a novel that she has been compiling for years. She is very aware of the luxury of freedom and time, and the abundance of it that Splendid provides.
Many of you think I spend my days laying on the beach, spear-fishing, and dreaming from my hammock, and I do. But most days I’m cutting, burning, and beating myself against an old ketch which I love in the pit of my soul. My blood is literally glassed into her decks, and she is very much an extension of myself. Splendid reaches far beyond the grasp of my hand. Splendid is my magic carpet, my Aladdin’s lamp, my home, my friend, and grants me the privilege to provide for not only myself, but now my wife.
I’m giving the last of my “young-man” strength to an old ship that in turn provides Carla and I the luxury of freedom and time without tax, liability, or debt.
When Carla thanked me for the time to write a book, play guitar, read, love, or dream whenever she wished, it made it all worth it.
We both live in a place where we have time to do what we want, travel where we want, sleep, love, and eat when we want.
How is it most people have managed to fuck the idea of freedom up so much?
How is it most of my fellow men find security in working to produce and sell unneeded useless shit, and financially support governments that strip not only others of their freedom, but themselves, only to afford bad food and shiny things? I’ll never understand.
Something very VERY strange just happened.
I was sitting here writing my blog as the sun was rising and I heard a flutter outside. I walked into the cockpit and there was a tiny sparrow by the speaker. It looked quite weak as if it had been flying for a while. I offered it my finger and after a few seconds he took it.
I took it into the aft cabin to wake-up and show Carla. Rubbing her eyes she said, “Que lindo” (How beautiful), “give it some water”.
The very, very strange part of this whole thing is for the past few days I’ve been dreaming of stray animals, and thinking about past experiences with animals visiting my, and my friends boats. I’ve had various birds, a mouse, and even a sloth visit my boats before. Sometimes beasts get a little off-course and decide to climb up the anchor chain from the water. My friend Chris woke up one morning to a large snake on deck.
I saw this one coming, and I’m a little freaked out at the moment.
Anyway, I took Carla’s advice and walked it into the galley and gave it a bowl of water to perch itself upon. It turned its tiny head to look at me and flew out of the galley and over the life line. Its trajectory was for the water and I threw my reading glasses to the table to dive overboard to save it. I was less than 2 seconds behind it and it only left my sight for a SPLIT-second.
I know this sounds a bit strange but it just disappeared. There is absolutely no way it could have left the scope of my vision and it HAD to hit the water. Not a ripple upon the water, nothing floating beneath the surface, and nothing in flight. It just disappeared.
This morning I experienced the 4th “mystical” if you will, event in my life. I won’t get into the others, but my experience with this little sparrow this morning was unworldly.
I don’t know how to explain it without sounding like a new-age fruit cake but it came to give, or tell me something. My first reaction was to call loved ones and make sure everyone is okay which we haven’t done. I don’t think it’s that but maybe a visit from my mother? It makes sense as she always wanted to see me content with a woman as she was never able to find love and I was writing about finally finding my woman.
All I can say is this was a positive event.
Anyway, this turned into a weird blog but I just wanted to share my morning.
There is a force in this world that we can’t even begin to explain. Some call it God, I call it nature. Whatever you believe I’m confident that our objective in life is to Love, receive Love, and live as free animals under the sun.
Peace my friends.
-alex