CONTENTMENT - LIFE IS GOOD

If I got to live my life over again, I would still go sailing.

In our later years, we all look back at what we have done with our lives. We go into rewind, and we tend to remember the good times and forget the bad.

When I rolled my van in New Zealand and broke two legs, fractured five ribs, and punctured one lung, pain and suffering became my new and constant companions. I got to know them personally in a way I had never known before.

In spite of all that pain and misery, I can't recall with any degree of intensity what it was like to go through that experience.

I remember I was uncomfortable and it took six months to learn to walk again, but I don't feel the pain any longer. It's been erased from my mind.

Contrast that with my cruising memories.

When I go into rewind, I instantly visualize and relive my eleven year sailing voyage around the world.

I see myself hiking in the jungles of Nuku Hiva.

I see the Pyramids of Giza and the Temples of Luxor.

I see myself driving in the sand dunes of Arabia.

I see the Israeli Navy gunboat circling around Exit Only as we wait for permission to land in Israel.

I see the crew of Exit Only exploring Nabatean Petra.

I see myself standing among the Orangutans of Borneo.

I see the humpback whales jumping in front of our boat off Fraser Island in Australia.

I see fjordland of New Zealand majestically surrounding me on all sides.

I see Mount Cook, the Franz Josef Glacier, and the Canterbury plains.

I see the Australian outback as well as the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

I see Chinatown in Singapore and Buddhist temples in Thailand.

These and a thousand other positive adventures come welling up in my mind when I go into rewind and observe a not-so-instant-replay of my life.

That's why it's so important to live my dreams.

That's why I would still go sailing.

When I look back over my life, I want tons of positive memories to overwhelm my mind and to remind me that life is truly good.

Dr. Dave