Nothing

I had a long talk with girl who sailed up to the boat.  She and her husband have been cruising for the past eight years on a junk rigged steel Colvin hull.  I was impressed when they arrived under sail and asked if they were setting their hook too close to me.  Good cruising neighbors.  We talked about doing nothing and how long it takes different types of people to unwind enough to perfect doing nothing.  Most of our lives we are taught that doing nothing is a bad thing.  “An idle mind is the devils workshop” etc, etc.  Here’s what I know, when I’m on the boat doing nothing, I can stop taking my blood pressure pills.  So, why don’t doctors prescribe nothing more often.  It seems to work.  This girl had sailed as far south as Ecuador and out to Hawaii.  They have no schedule or plans, they just sail where ever and enjoy it when they get there.  You might be picturing bums, the homeless wanderers of the ocean, you’d be wrong.  She and her husband are both retired US Coast Guard veterans.  Respectable people who just saw through the BS of never being idle.  We need to remember how to do this.  Not just a two-week vacation once a year that we return from exhausted because it was so over scheduled.  We need vacations from our vacations.  Try to make your life a vacation.  Give nothing a try.