Once we landed in Apataki, we had to take a boat ride about 6 miles across the atoll lagoon to the Apataki Carenage

Here we are home again. in this dreamy place.And yet, lets be honest. The dream, where is the dream? As we have said when people ask us of our Portland experience, “ The girls had fun, but Bill, not so much. The high lights for the girls are too many to list. For Bill, playing Marimba and getting to know my cousin more closely. Of course there were lots of nice things and things that I enjoyed… and yet I came away feeling that my expectations had not been filled. And Lara, she said, “ I could anywhere.” And that is true as she is more evolved than I.

So why this discussion? Well, if you look at the title of the blog, you might see that we left on this boat in search of something. And being honest, we went to Portland in search of something… maybe the same thing! ANd now, back on the boat, it has me thinking that location isn’t going to give us what we need! I can hear the laughter and those who are saying, “of course, you dumbo.” And again, I also risk having people say, but wait, you are living the dream. You are on a boat with your family in French Polynesia.” Yes, and I am first to admit that I am very fortunate to have all that… and yet, could we be honest and say, there might be a piece missing.

So, we have returned to the boat with four books that we plan on reading as a family and implementing.

The Japanese art of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, Getting Things Done by David Allen , The 15 commitments of a Conscious Leader by Dethmer, Chapman and Klemp http://15commitments.com , and The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

Why Tidy up? When we moved on the boat, that required getting rid of a lot of stuff, and that experience for us was incredible. We moved from two houses and a commercial building to a boat 38 feet long and 11 feet wide at the widest, and don’t forget that one end it quite pointy. And yet, our boat is still cluttered with stuff. We have remarked that for us, going on passage is stressful because of the work we have to do to get everything stowed. And doing any project on the boat requires a shuffling of “stuff” so we can access the tools and the area to do the project. What is interesting, when we look our ditch bag, other than survival gear, the only things we worry about are our photos. Hmmm… So, that begs the question, “what is all that stuff?” So, we will turn to Miss Kondo in hopes that we might answer that question and obtain some freedom in that area.

And, I can here you now, “Come on Calfee, you live on a boat, why do you need to “Get things done?” Well, what we have found in almost 6 years aboard Sunrise is that it is really no different than any other lifestyle. There are things that need doing: The boat is constantly calling to be fixed. There is always some that could be changed that would make life easier. There is all the day to day “chores” of cooking, washing up, laundry, bill paying, shopping, school work, etc. And then the things like navigation, planning, all the logistics of being in another country, without a car, operating in a foreign language, etc. I could go on and on. We have found that we can easily spend our days “doing what needs to be done” and never get out to experience some of the places we end up in! Really! Example is that we never went to Teahupoo, the world renowned surfing mecca on Tahiti! We sailed past it, we anchored within 5 miles of it, we stayed on Tahiti and had access to a car… and we never went there! So, we might use some help from Mr. !

And Conscious Leadership? “What the heck Calfee? You are not running a business out there, it’s a boat!” OK, this book is really about making life fun. Even when there is work to be done. And I will remind you that we have Isobel with us and although Lara and I could probably get through being cranky because the boat is on the hard, it is hot and there are bugs… there might be an opportunity to move the needle a little toward enlightenment…! I am not sure yet what all 15 commitments are, and yet I can see that if some joy and play can be found when things get rough, that would shift our experience.

And, The Artist’s Way. Well, again… some guidance around bringing joy, art and play to our life our life. To free our heads of all the little niggly thoughts that run around up there and allow in some creativity.

We feel like all these books are aligned and might give us some structure to take advantage of our situation. We look forward to your comments and we invite anyone who wants to join us in one or all of these endeavors.