Like you, we are watching helplessly as the west burns and the south floods. It’s so bad we saw the smoke here on the horizon last week. All is not well. Ughh.
Another rough week for our country in a rough year. I’m still long-run OFO but these are real challenges and I send you all a virtual elbow bump.
We also send our love to friends in the path but we can’t do much about fire and rain. What we CAN do is act locally to help mother nature wherever she makes you feel like a favorite child.
For me it’s Buzzards Bay. When I think of Buzzards Bay, I think of sailing upwind into chop powered by a 17-knot Southwest breeze. At sunset the breeze softens and fades into an oily orange sky. Nothing better than the easy sail home, off the wind with friends. Gratitude finds me there.
I think of quick chilly dips with braver, younger swimmers in June and slower, more leisurely August swims – and even today – the occasional night swim. Rum- inspired July date nights off Butlers point, wintry morning coffee and conversation at Old Landing with the car heater running — she is giving to us in every season.
The only fish I like on my boats are grilled fish but others rejoice in chasing stripers. I remember a still, quiet Sunday morning a couple years ago when three of these beauties surprised me by darting right underneath my paddleboard in the clearest most beautifully-tinted water. Heartbeat skipping stuff. It was my kind of religion – the world was saying “all is well here, things are as they should be”.
Of course, it’s also true that Buzzards Bay is at risk. Nitrogen, oil, declining forests and wetlands. Lions and tigers and bears.
It’s just a little stone in the pond, but I’m joining a few hundred every-day-average-awesome people cycling around the Bay to raise funds to restore and protect clean water in our community. Thankfully, it’s an old story –banding together, we can create a ripple and begin to change one little part of what’s not “all well” in the world.
I would love your support (click here to help protect Buzzards Bay)and no worries if you can’t. Embrace and cherish your own “Buzzards Bay.”
Keep moving in the direction of your dreams in spite of the circumstances. Keep throwing stones.
Peace and Health and Clean Water.
OFO, Dan
