Reflections on what matters

In the past 10 days we’ve both been away from the boat which has given valuable time for reflection. Reflection about what really matters.

Living and working afloat as we do provides two key essentials that are reaffirming and invaluable – choice and freedom.

To be free to go and help instantly where and when without needing to book time off, juggle leave or appointments is liberating. It is good to be both wanted and needed, and even better to know that we can dig in to support with our time at the drop of a hat.

Downshifting has meant the work we do has to work for us, as a means to an end and not a be-all-and-end-all. Working flexibly may not make us millionaires but allows us to support ourselves and our family with time and actually being there when it really counts. Our work goes with us wherever we are, but we need to do less of it, so it doesn’t constrain in the way it once did. That’s good for the output too.

We choose where we go (within the obvious constraint of having water to float on!). We moor where we choose: choosing whether to take short mooring or longer moorings, to moor in cities or towns, villages or the middle of nowhere. Sometimes a need for internet and/or phone signal moves us on, but I think that’s only happened twice.

Freedom allows us to take the time to appreciate living so close to nature – to see the changing of the seasons, the cycle of life including battles against predators and elements to thrive and grow, and we make the time to marvel in the beauty of life around us. It is a privilege – something we failed to build into our daily lives when they were absorbed by work, commuting, packed diaries and constrained by houses and cars (nice as those were).

We have freedom through choice from monotony, from overwhelming routine – we can choose to make every day different, to move on, to stay put, to explore on foot or on the boat, to give work the time it needs and then devote the rest of the time to what we choose to do, which often includes the constant of boat maintenance. Living like this makes us more aware of our consumption, and even regular tasks like filling up with water, emptying waste and fetching the shopping become interesting because they’re nearly always in new places, certainly since lockdown constraints ended.

Part of my trip away included regular hospital visiting, underlining once more as the pandemic did how vital health is to us all, and how like so many things life, we take it for granted until we don’t have it. That can also be said of freedom and choice – we need to really value them where we have them in our lives and not let them be eroded or obliterated by work or material pressures.

This floating lifestyle can at times seem selfish in its multiple positive benefits to us. Knowing we can go and help when needed, to take time to share the good times as well as the difficult brings another really important positive.

So this life we have afloat… It’s a simpler life. It’s a slower life. It’s a better balanced life. It’s not a wealthy life, but in many ways it is a richer life.

That’s been proven to me this past 10 days when we’ve both been able to be with family, to support and help when and where needed (one of us headed south and the other headed north!). It’s been so good for us to be able to do that, to share daily routines like chatty walks to pre school, garage clearing, and enjoying relaxing over home cooked meals together – let’s hope it was good for them too!

Hope the coming week is good for you and yours. Build in some choices for yourself, create some appreciation time and ringfence some time just to reflect on what is good in your life.