Tag: Auke Bay

  • Letters from the Sea

    What Season Are You In?

    From me to you.šŸ¤

    I can hear the torch from the workshop in the bow of the Gypsy as I sit in the recliner in the saloon with a cup of coffee. Scott is working on soldering a heat exchanger so we are warmer this winter, and the kids are back on the 1st and 2nd days of school. We are anchored up in Auke Bay near Juneau for another day or a few, depending on the weather and boat projects and….the flow.

    Summer with the kids is over, and what an array of experiences it was. I feel so deeply fortunate and grateful to have shared in such beautiful gifts and special family time. During their stay, I paused several times to really reflect…we are living our dream together, and we are getting to share it with our children, and that is a very meaningful life to lead.

    Of course, when you go from no kids to 5 kids, and back and forth throughout the year, it can also be mildly disorienting 🤪 And although we’ve been doing this together for several years now, I’m still learning, and I imagine I always will be.

    One of the things living on the sea continues to show me is there is a season for everything, and not everything is always in season. The herring roe are only here in the spring. The humpbacks primarily stay during the summer months, following the abundance of food in the wild ocean. The salmon only run at certain times, returning to familiar streams. The brown bears roam the coastline following the fish. The deer are high in the mountains until the snow ushers them down to the beaches below.

    There are seasons of abundance and seasons of going inward and preparing to receive.

    It’s okay that not every day or season is the same, and that’s what adds to the beautiful complexity of life. That is something personally that is very satisfying to me…the shifts in each day, and living on the ocean really allows that feeling to become a lived reality.

    When the kids are here, I tend to my own personal needs less. I sleep less, eat more, exercise less, and in general practice energy healing less as well. I’m tending to owies, having deep chats, going for hikes, paddles, and swims with the kiddos, staying up way past my bedtime to have a little quiet time with Scott, cooking 3 meals a day even though I only eat 1 šŸ˜‚ This is completely typical as a mom, and one of the things I have had to get used to as a ā€œco-parentā€ rather than a full time mom is the ebbs and the flow of these times.

    Different seasons. An evolving flow. Accepting the season, and tending to the areas that bring you the highest yields….the highest yields in your heart, your soul, your alignment, and your truth, is such a profound gift.

    No matter what season we are in, it’s difficult to observe, notice, and tend to without quiet time for contemplation. When I lived in the city, it would be during my daily drives that I would have this time of surprising clarity. When I lived in the mountains, it was early morning runs and hikes when it would come as the sun peeked over the alpine ridge. On the boat, it’s often gazing out the window at the ocean rolling beneath us, the light reflecting in an array of patterns soothing to the nervous system.

    Taking time…contemplating…and accepting the season, the shifts within that each one brings, and pouring gratitude all over all of it allows the natural unfolding to be much more fulfilling and harmonizing.

    Grateful for this life, and for the shifting seasons. Thank you for sharing them with me.

    And curious, what season are you in right now?

    With love,

    Audrey