Just a few to think about today...

I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now. ~Thoreau

Thoreau must have been a really cool person - he said so many interesting things. What a great way to express this idea. Someone was talking about the negatives that come with what they do ... how they spend a big part of their only life. Yeah - I've noticed that everything comes with that stuff ... the stuff that is just about too much on some (lots of) days.
Several years ago we visited the reproduction models of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria (now in dry dock in Corpus Christi, Texas). They were tiny. The cabin was stiflingly small. Wow - what an idea - on the deck of the world, for there I could best see.... And see what?
"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ~Thoreau again. Sometimes it may be the moonlight amid the mountains ... every once in a while. Sometimes the darkness blankets the view and it's as if one has no choice but cabin passage. And then maybe there are other wonderful things to see. Maybe one might see the reflection of who they are becoming ...
INVICTUS~
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
~William Ernest Henley

... responsible as, accountable as the master of my fate ... the captain of my soul.

That's kind of what I've been struggling with. The cabin is too small, but it's known and relatively safe ... . Or ... I can take my chances out in the open air. I bet those sailors would wish for a little of both. Shelter and adventure.

Looking at those little boats and the conditions ... they didn't use GPS ... and yet the same stars sparkled overhead. I wondered that they could make it safely (scarred and stinky ... half starved) to the other shore.

“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." ~ T.S. Eliot

"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try," which is Yoda from "The Empire Strikes Back"

I'm a little bit scared ... afraid ... as I set out. Two weeks towards the next shore (and I hear the hotel provides those white goose down comforters that I like) on this little journey. Very exciting ... very cool! Dangit - I'm running late!