Shaping Your Journey
A reader recently asked whether the process of writing Sailing Down the Moonbeam had a role in “shaping” my understanding of a journey that took me from one career to another via three years on a small sailboat. My first response was “not really,” but within moments, I knew the answer was “yes.”
It related to our sojourn in Panama. When I first outlined the story, I viewed Panama, along with a host of lovely island stops across the Pacific Ocean, as places where we’d had interesting adventures, but not experiences that specifically contributed to the life lesson—learning to love living out of control—that inspired Moonbeam.
I couldn’t omit Panama entirely, if only because we spent seven months there. But I anticipated half a dozen pages, focused on the challenges of getting through the Canal.
In fact, Panama takes up 41 of the final 209 pages. It was only as I started writing that I understood the role that Panama had played in my journey:
** It was in Panama that I first understood how much of “me” had disappeared over fifteen years of marriage.
As many women do, I had allowed my husband–an extrovert—to make so many decisions about ordinary everyday activities. Not surprisingly, I’d almost lost sight of my own ability to organize life and make friends without his help.
But much of our early time in Panama revolved around his surgeries (first a hernia, then a melanoma). I had no choice but to take the initiative. In Panama, I not only re-discovered who I had once been, but also who I could become.
** It was in Panama that I first began to think about the benefits of “stepping outside your comfort zone.”
Through an incredible bit of serendipity, my husband and I both got part-time jobs that utilized our professional skills. As a result, we transitioned from travelers to residents and had to adapt to a way of life that challenged many of cultural mores and norms we’d taken for granted for four decades. It was often humbling to realize that “my way” isn’t always the best way.
Writing Moonbeam did not change my “memory” of Panama, but it certainly shaped my understanding of the experience, much like journaling can provide a new perspective on a familiar situation. It helped me to understand that Panama set the stage. Without Panama, I doubt I would have been receptive to the lesson that was reinforced each day as we crossed the Pacific Ocean—that a living a life that was out-of-control might be a very good thing indeed.
How has writing shaped your memory?
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