NOT THAT I WANT THIS BUT WOULDN’T IT BE COOL?

Finally getting around to another piece dealing with manifesting.

I’ve got a lot of writing andirons in the fire these days.

It has to do with manifesting by proxy.

You get to enjoy something but you don’t have to live it.

Let me explain…

Especially since prevailing theory is you have to work for something.

A theory that, a Midwesterner by birth, I am more than familiar with.

It all started with the phrase Wouldn’t It Be Cool…?

Come on, you can’t be that surprised.

However, there is a bit of a twist.  

I didn’t actually want what I considered would be cool.

The Scene

I’m 7 and watching Jacques Cousteau on some docu-show on TV.  I was actually bored until my dad pointed out that the people he was working with were raising their kids not in a traditional sense like I was living but on the ocean.

“You mean that boat is their home?”

That boat was a gorgeous sailing yacht.

“But what about school?”

That led to an in-depth discussion about homeschooling and what living a nontraditional life can teach.

Wow

No boring school?  No nuns?  No stinky classroom that was ungodly hot in the late spring/early summer?  Cool!

Where do I sign up?

I can see why my dad was good in sales.  He has a way of presenting a vision that really draws you in.  However, he didn’t like to deal with the devil.  

You  know – the details?

Knowing this I wasn’t too keen on his version of how we’d make it work.  

Living on a rusted out abandoned oil tanker in the Louisiana bayou doesn’t compare with what I saw on TV.

My vision was – living space wise – a bit more traditional.

My dad subscribed to Yachting magazine for years and I would lay on my stomach in the living room listening to Rubber Soul or Emerson Lake and Palmer Works I and flipping through the pages.

I also frequently listened to Queen’s Night at the Opera.

I was fascinated by the images in the magazines.

I loved the creative utilization of space – even as I was confused.

“Where do they put the toys?”

My dad explained – by way of answer – the dramatic differences in lifestyle between someone living in a post World War II tract home in a Detroit blue-collar neighborhood and someone following a dream by living it.

He pointed out things I believed sacrifices – no room for toys – were not considered such by those living the dream.

That night I stared up in the dark and thought about the kind of people who raised their kids living on the sea with a boat for a home.  The more I thought about it the more I decided it was cool.

Very cool.

They weren’t afraid to do what it took to live their dream.

I decided such people were brave.

I admired them for not worrying about what the neighbors thought about what they were doing since it was different.

Something I heard endlessly at school, in the community, and in my family.  

That circled back to courage because it takes courage to go against the grain.

Think Jonathon Livingston Seagull, a story my dad used to read to me.

Though I loved the idea of traveling the world and I didn’t mind going against the grain, I didn’t want to live on the ocean.  That didn’t stop me from watching documentaries or reading sailing and yachting magazines or befriending people who owned boats.

We had a Criss-Craft for awhile and used to take it out regularly on various Michigan lakes, fishing and water skiing.

Fast Forward

I’ve done my share of traveling – and boating.

Have a few friends who own sailboats.

Wouldn’t It Be Cool – By Proxy

Not only do I have friends who own various boats including sailboats, I know some who live on their boats.

One couple I know lives part of the year on a houseboat up in Alaska tagging ocean critters for research and conservation purposes.

Most incredible is that I know a family living the Jacques Cousteau way.

They make their living a little differently but they are living their dream in the way I always thought would be cool.

Even as I didn’t want it for myself.

When I first met them I felt an immediate rapport.  So many of our views about living a nontraditional lifestyle were in sync.

I like to say we did on land what they do on the ocean.

I told them I felt as if in meeting them I’d met celebrities from a childhood dream.

They are the most wonderful upbeat people living a wonderful dream.

A dream they built together.

Tune the Dial

I’ve mentioned the first line on my white board is Tune the Dial to remind me to start my day thinking about something or someone positive.  I also have a little drawing of a sailboat as a symbol of this family who followed their dream.

A dream more than a few people thought they were nuts for pursuing.

Thinking of them puts a smile on my face because thinking of them is thinking of what I admire.

Following their hearts and living their dream courageously.

They are the perfect inspiration but more, they are a manifestation from my youth.

One I can enjoy even though I didn’t do the work – living on the water.

Now isn’t that cool?