Sailing

"Sailing, sailing, over the ocean blue..."

We are sailing. It was Friday. 2:00pm The crew waved from deck seven and eight as we made our way out of port. And I realize that I ready. Ready to have a break from the in tenseness of it all. And I will miss it and the children and great expanse of healing and possibilities and dreams stretched before that war-ravished country. But I am ready. And perhaps some day when I am older I will come back to see how it has changed and grown.

It never occurred to me that sailing was anything more than wonderfully romantic. The wind in my hair. I could see myself spending hours on deck eight. And watching the waves. As we headed out of dock and the ship began moving and we faced the seemingly endless ocean I felt this sense of crazy freedom.

However, there is more to sailing. After a few hours, we were all feeling rather drowsy and found ourselves stumbling around. It was hard to focus on my work. I eventually had to go down to our room to lay down. Because my bed is positioned perpendicular to the bow, the rocking gives the impression of a slinky. Up and down, head to toe. Whenever I stood up it felt like an elevator that wouldn't stop moving. One moment you feel weightless and the next you are being brutally ground down into the floor by gravity. It feels like the ocean is in your stomach.

The second day was farely better. It was calmer. But everyone was still drowsy. Sunday was misery once again. Today, although the ship still bounces up and down, I am feeling better. I finally caved and took some kids motion sickness pills. I decided it was better to be high and happy and able to function, than entirely sane and miserable and not able to do anything. It's the best up on one of the open decks. It's super windy, but the sun is warm. I've heard that it's also something with the relationship between your eyes and your inner ear.

At times the sun is blinding on the water. It is a dark blue, but when the sun shines, it looks like molten silver all the way out to that smooth sky. The sky fades white at the very horizon and then darkens to a more sky blue up above. I am surprised at the size of the waves. The white foamy wash sweeping out from the sides of the ship and the cresting whitecaps, like thousands of snowy peaks being covered by this navy blueness.

So goodbye my landlubbers
In snowy landscape
In warm little houses
As cookies you make


Don't you forget
As you carol away
As you decorate trees
Remember to pray


There's a girl on a ship
In oceans so deep
Loving an missing you
Even in sleep


So goodbye my landlubbers
Remember to pray
For that girl far away
Feeling cold ocean spray