Heading east
Some photos will never be as beautiful as you remember the scene, like the time I sat on the back of a boat heading towards port in Milford Sound, in a comfortable seated yoga pose. This came back upon me in reflection yesterday in the yoga studio, where I returned for the first time in a few months, along with thoughts and feelings from my journey across the Atlantic with my daughters and my mother back in August.
It occurred to me that the feeling is different if you’re heading towards the sun or away from port, or even away from home. When we set sail for England in August, it seemed natural to do it in the eastbound direction. Every day for seven days we were further from home, and for five of those seven days bedtime came an hour earlier every night. I wonder if my British friends have the same dream to take the trip towards home as I did to take it away from home. And actually, other than avoiding a red-eye flight and timing the schedule properly, I never put any thought into whether it would be better eastward or westbound, but I suspect heading west it would be more windy on the boat and you would lose the advantage of watching the world recede into the sunset every evening.
The scene I'm considering captured the end of a long day in Milford Sound. It was that point where I was tired of looking at sea lions and instead chose to sit in peace away from the other tourists. On vacation in August, I did not have many moments of silence and peace like this. When the girls were not with me, I was typically doing something that needed to be done without supervision - like spending 45 minutes on the treadmill or renting a tuxedo or doing some shopping, or perhaps reading a bit to reset my mind.
But it occurred to me in my mind last night that there are moments of this peace and quiet that I picked up and reset me from my home here in Arlington, like that happiness I feel when I look at the photo of Annabelle wearing my suit coat on the deck of the ship as the sun, and my home, recede into the distance.
It occurred to me that the feeling is different if you’re heading towards the sun or away from port, or even away from home. When we set sail for England in August, it seemed natural to do it in the eastbound direction. Every day for seven days we were further from home, and for five of those seven days bedtime came an hour earlier every night. I wonder if my British friends have the same dream to take the trip towards home as I did to take it away from home. And actually, other than avoiding a red-eye flight and timing the schedule properly, I never put any thought into whether it would be better eastward or westbound, but I suspect heading west it would be more windy on the boat and you would lose the advantage of watching the world recede into the sunset every evening.
The scene I'm considering captured the end of a long day in Milford Sound. It was that point where I was tired of looking at sea lions and instead chose to sit in peace away from the other tourists. On vacation in August, I did not have many moments of silence and peace like this. When the girls were not with me, I was typically doing something that needed to be done without supervision - like spending 45 minutes on the treadmill or renting a tuxedo or doing some shopping, or perhaps reading a bit to reset my mind.
But it occurred to me in my mind last night that there are moments of this peace and quiet that I picked up and reset me from my home here in Arlington, like that happiness I feel when I look at the photo of Annabelle wearing my suit coat on the deck of the ship as the sun, and my home, recede into the distance.