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The Life Long Disoriented are experts
in time travel, and they do it all the time. They get into their time
machines and live either in the past or future. When they travel to the
past, they live in the Land of Regrets. When they travel to the future,
they live in the Land of Fear.
The Land of Regrets is a place where they can mourn over their past
mistakes and failures. They agonize over what could have been and
should have been; they grieve over missed opportunities.
The Land of Fear is a future destination where everything that can go
wrong does go wrong. All their negative fantasies are immediately
fulfilled. There is no limit to how miserable their future life can
become; they fill their cup of fear until it overflows.
I am not a member of the Life Long Disoriented, and I will not set my
feet in their time machine.
I will not let past regrets or a fearful
future spoil my life. Today is the only day, and now is the only time
that I can make my dreams come true. I will act as if my dreams are
possible and work today to make them happen.
Copyright © 2013
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For the past twenty-eight years I have been discovering new worlds.
When I sailed to the Galapagos, I discovered the Garden of Eden, a place
where man and beast lived in harmony. As we walked the trails on the
different islands, the birds and sea iguanas went about their business
as if we were not there. If we got too close to their offspring, they
might squawk and scold us for our poor manners, but they knew we would
do them no harm.
When I sailed to the Marquesas Islands, I discovered a nearly extinct
world where tens of thousands of Polynesians lived until the
explorers came with their chicken pox and measles and decimated these
islands with lethal microbes. Tropical jungle now hides the ruins of
their ancient civilization from our twenty-first century eyes.
When I sailed to the Tuamoto Archipelago, I discovered a world populated
by hundreds of atolls stretching over thousands of square miles. From
bombed out Mururoa to Rangiroa, there were crystal clear lagoons
inviting adventurers to drop their anchors in the craters of extinct
volcanoes.
When I sailed to Tonga, I discovered an island world ruled by a royalty.
When I sailed to Fiji, I discovered a world of more than four hundred
islands, with each small island ruled by a tribal chief. If I wanted to
visit their world, I needed to present a gift of Kava to the chief.
When I sailed to New Zealand, I discovered a world of immigrants, some
of them ancient and some recent. The Maori came in their war canoes
centuries ago, and the Europeans were the Johnny Come Latelys in the
Land of the Long White Cloud.
When I sailed to Australia, I discovered a world that has it all.
Tropics in the north, mountains in the south, and everything in
between. There were over 35,000 kilometers of coastline to explore in
the down under world called OZ.
We made excursions into the Hindu world in Bali and the Buddhist world
in Thailand. We explored the Muslim world in the Maldives, Oman, Yemen,
Sudan and Egypt.
We visited Pharos world, a place of temples, tombs and kingdoms that
lasted for thousands of years.
We explored the Jewish world in Israel, and discovered the Nabatean
world in Petra.
We travelled back in time visiting crusader castles in Israel, Cyprus,
and Turkey. Next, we visited ancient Roman and Greek worlds in Ephesus
and Heriopolis.
Finally, we swashbuckled through the Caribbean world where privateers
ruled the not-so-high seas.
That's what it means to be a cruiser. Your small yacht is both time
machine and transporter that takes you to dozens of new worlds.
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