Happy Holidays

Well its that time of year again, and a good time to make a New Years resolution. Every day is a good day to make a resolution but many seem to like change with a new calendar year. Want to go cruising? Make definite plans, put some money away every month for your boat. I just met a guy on a 38’ Camper & Nicholson (great boat) he picked up for 8K. I know so many of you dream of shifting gears in your lives, and this might be the perfect time. It would be easy for most of you who really want it. Sell your car and flat screen, find a good home (sailboat), freedom, and endless horizons.

My friend David sent me text from a blog at mnmlist.com that I liked:

localization

“What would happen if fuel prices suddenly became not just expensive but ridiculous? What if gas shot up to $20 per gallon?

The notion of driving everywhere would suddenly seem crazy. We drive far wide and often because gas is relatively cheap. But if it were costly we’d walk and bike more. We’d take transit and car-share. We’d work and shop and eat and visit people near our homes. We’d be healthier because we drove less. And we’d have to work less to support our driving.

The notion of shipping everything everywhere would also seem crazy. Today we get packages shipped to us all the time. Food and goods get shipped all over the world several times over. But that requires a lot of fuel — and if fuel were costly we’d give that practice up. Instead we’d get our food and goods locally. We might even start growing our food ourselves — it’s not that far-fetched a notion when you consider how many people are starting to grow their own food these days in cities and suburbs.

The notion of heating and cooling the entirety of our (huge) houses would also become crazy. Today we heat 100% of our houses when it’s cold even if we only occupy a small percentage of the heated area. But what if we took the Japanese idea of having a small heater with a blanket that families sit around to get warm? Or a family bath that’s heated instead of the entire home? There are many ideas we’d come up with for heating locally and more efficiently.

Alternative energies would become more important. People would travel less and start to get to know their local areas more. People would begin walking their neighborhoods and getting to know their communities. Imagine that.

Here’s the kicker: fuel already is incredibly expensive — we just don’t pay the entire price at the pump. We pay for it later through costs to our health our communities our environment. We’re going to pay for it later as the rising cost of polluting our earth and heating up our climate comes to collect its toll.”

Personally I like the idea of traveling more and consuming less. Ask not how much you can get from life but how little you need and the path to freedom and happiness will blossom. Bikes make good Christmas gifts, especially if they are used and you can blow the dust off :) It all boils down to personal responsibility and we all (myself included) need to ask ourselves what more we can do to make our world a better place.  Even if it is just setting up a ride share at work, walking more, or taking a bike ride. Trust me, if you walk and bike more, you’ll be happier and live longer.

Is 2011 the year you cut the line? Looking at the top of my blog I’m on day 2789, man it’s been a good ride :)

I knew some people in Fort Myers who had been living on the dock for years. With the fall of the economy they had to move out into the bay and drop the hook. “Why didn’t I do this years ago, I could have saved all that money” was the common response.

Don’t fear change, embrace it. It’s hard some times, trust me I know.

I want to share a little magic from the sea that might brighten your holiday mood. I’ve had a number of experiences with whales over the years, the coolest was being thrown out of bed at sunrise as whale was scratching his back on Namast’s keel. I ran into the cockpit and looked into his eyes and had a “moment” before he swam off, it was amazing! It’s good to be close to nature.

“If you read a recent front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. A fisherman spotted her just east of the  Farallon Islands  (outside the Golden Gate ) and radioed an environmental group for help.

Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around as she was thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.”

Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.

– Alex

Published in Alex Dorsey