Maia is homesick.
It happens every so often. She starts to think about the fun she had with her friends and extended family and our new life, our sailing life, seems to pale in comparison.
She misses the simple things: walking to the park and finding her friends playing there, visiting a neighbourhood house that as Maia says, “goes over the top” with Christmas decorations, or visiting our neighbourhood grocery store where the owner always called her, “my beautiful princess”.
We try to convince her that someday, these memories, the ones we are creating now as a little nomadic family of three, will be just as poignant as the ones she’s clinging to.
We try to convince her that pouting and being sad is a choice.
We get nowhere.
But sometimes when just we let the day unfold – when she visits a shell shop and makes such good friends with the shop keeper that he gives her a bag of shells for half-off, or when we attend a Christmas block party and she joins an informal children’s choir, or when she is so excited by Christmas lights that she can’t help jumping up and down – those are the moments when we know it will be okay.
In these bright moments our new life gets its lustre back – and it shines.
4 comments:
Aw. Hang in there Maia. Just keep validating her feelings. It must be a difficult transition. Maybe she could talk to somebody else who has BTDT such as one of the grown Hacking kids from Yacht Ocelot. I think they took off about Maia's age and lived aboard for many years. They might be able to give her some insight. http://hackingfamily.com/
Hi! I've been reading your blog for a little while now and am wondering if you might have some advice re medicine for cruising. We are about to leave on an extended sailing trip and are wondering what we may need as far as antibiotics, seasickness meds, etc. We've heard a couple things but I'd appreciate your thoughts and hearing what you are carrying with you, and whether you have any strong feelings about seasickness meds. We're gathering the pros/cons of each before loading up! Love your blog and really thankful for the shower post! We'll be leaving from SF in January and will surely need to freshen up down the coast :)
Hi Karen,
We have a few books that I recommend to start:
Medicine for Mountaineering. Good book that realizes you might be a bit more than a 911 call away from help.
Where There Is No Doctor. Available as a free download. Excellent book - used as text for Peace Corps workers in 3rd world countries. Pretty common sense stuff.
First Aid Afloat. Least favorite book but does cover a few topics that the others miss. You can safely skip it. Very popular with other sailors for some reason
1. Antibiotics: if you have a medical plan that covers this sort of thing without huge co-pays, talk to your doctor about your plans and have a shopping list of a few broad spectrum antibiotics.
Otherwise get these in Mexico as they will be super cheap.
2. Pain killers. Have at least 1 good strong pain killer. Tell your doctor that you might be a week or more from help with a busted leg and _need_ these drugs. I am not talking Tylenol 3 here, something a bit stronger.
3. Lots of other non prescription medicines will be used more frequently. Think about what you have in your medicine cabinet and have lots on hand. You'll use more cold tablets and Advil than the other stuff above.
4. Seasickness pills. Try different ones on rough days. My wife Diane likes Stugeron, but only available in Mexico or UK, not Canada or US. I use generic Dramamine (I think) Meclinize HCl and it works ok for me. Take them in advance of leaving.
Swells make me mildly queasy at the most, and Di takes a good 24 hours to get accustomed to the motion once we are out there.
Other drugs that you might want to have on hand:
- opthamalic ointment for eye injuries
- Silvadene cream for burns
- over the counter treatment for yeast infections
- Decadron (used for head injuries like catching the boom with your forehead)
Evan
Evan~ Thank you so much for the list of meds!! Hadn't even thought about pain killers but those would be pretty important in certain situations! Really appreciate the advice. Have you found meds from Mexico to be pretty comparable quality as those in the states? We are looking into sea sickness meds now. I've heard good things about the stugeron so may have to pick that up later and just pick up something else for now. Anyway - thank you so much for responding to my comment!
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