Living & Learning Aboard the Good Ship Learnativity: Small Town Boy Hits the Big Times!

That’s a phrase which my Dad used to like to use a lot and I was reminded of it with an Email I just received telling me that a story of mine has just been published in a magazine.

If you’ve been reading my blog posts here for a while you’ve already read this one, but it was a neat treat to see my story make it to the “big times” when it was published in this month’s (Dec 2009) edition of Latitudes & Attitudes magazine. Where else would you expect a story of mine to appear right?? <g>

Better yet, this is one of my favorite sailing magazines (I read a LOT of them) and they (Seafaring International) are also trying to figure out how to survive and thrive as a magazine in this day. You’ll see that they are providing this link to an online version of the magazine (free) from their web site. In their case they are providing the online version as an exact duplicate of the print “real” magazine, ads and all, which is good in some ways but lacking in that it doesn’t take much advantage of being online such as links, searching, video, touch screen interface, etc. But I digress and you can read more about my rants and raves on these more “serious” topics in my other blog Off Course – On Target if you’re curious for more on these kinds of issues.

The editors told me it is hitting the magazine stands now and you can also see an online version of it here on their web site.

Gifts in Living, Learning & Loving

I still look back upon this experience with great awemazement and easily one of the big events in my life from the past few years, which is saying quite a bit I guess. While it isn’t something that I would wish upon anyone, it was a fabulous experience and one I’m glad to have experienced. I know many don’t care for it, but I find great truth in the quip “That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger” I know in this case I learned a lot and regard it now as a gift that I was given the opportunity to have all the experiences and all the emotions, good and bad, during and after this tsunami experience.

In addition to some of the specific lessons I learned and recount at the end of the published story, it is the bigger life lessons that make this experience so rich and positive for me. For example, pause for a moment and think about the retired sailing couple 2 boats away from me at the time. One moment they were living their dream, sipping their morning coffee while basking in the early morning sun in their cockpit and literally the next moment he had his feet washed out from under him as he stepped onto the dock to release his lines and was gone forever and she had to motor away from the dock, and life as she knew it, alone.

I realize it sounds strange to many, but I regard myself as fortunate enough to have lived through several near death experiences. I sincerely regard them as a gifts I’ve been given. They have made me stronger and better as a person. Being taught such things as how fragile life is, what is truly important in life, the humbling majesty of Mother Nature, how we never usually know when the last time is for most things, how important it is to live in and optimize every moment, how the world is full of many more good people than bad, are profound presents I shall be forever thankful for and do my best to put into practice.

Hope you enjoy the story and that it helps all of us continue to learn from these great lessons in learning, living and loving.

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We have some dense vegetation on one side of our house which is a seasonal bunny incubator. A few feet away is the window well in my office. Teeny bunnies would fall in with no chance of escape. Imagine a superball in a barrel with strong legs and a brain. Attempts to catch them only made them more frantic. Having been a designer all my life, I rigged a black cloth shopping bag to a stick and lowered it into the well, making sure to hold it open. With another stick I would gently prod the bunny. As planned, on every occasion they ran right into the dark "rabbit hole" and I hoisted them out to safety. Most often they were paralyzed with fear and I would get to observe them closely for a few moments before they regained their legs.

Posted by: David Kingsley | February 07, 2010 at 04:02 AM