{"id":3816,"date":"2015-07-01T11:49:16","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T18:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3816"},"modified":"2015-07-01T11:49:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T18:49:16","slug":"enjoy-the-ride-ketchikan-alaska-06262015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=3816","title":{"rendered":"Enjoy the Ride \u2013 Ketchikan, Alaska \u2013 [06\/26\/2015]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"70a4e4bc3fd4235827487a99c7bb454f-d74llmg\"<\/a>Life should not be a calm and quiet journey from birth to grave. Life should be a rollercoaster that slides into the end \u2013 martini in one hand, chocolate in the other screaming \u201cMAN! What a ride!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Sitting in the showroom this morning, with a handful of crew and a smattering of guests, there was one thought that ruffled through the air like a butterfly\u2026though only a few of us voiced it. Very quietly, as though afraid of the implications.<\/p>\n

It could have been us. It could have been our tour. Our plane. Our guests.<\/em><\/p>\n

It could have been us.<\/p>\n

So very easily it could have been us.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t my ship that lost 8 guests yesterday afternoon; but it may as well have been. When something like this happens, it doesn\u2019t just ripple through the fleet, it ripples \u2013 I imagine \u2013 through every<\/em> fleet. A stark reminder that things can happen out here, things do<\/em> happen out here, and that you simply cannot plan for something like that. You can\u2019t turn back the clock and tell that family not to get on that plane, you can\u2019t tell that pilot to hug his wife extra tight.<\/p>\n

So where does that leave you? Where does that leave any of us?<\/p>\n

It leaves us with the choice to look forward or back.<\/p>\n

I am not a religious person in the traditional sense, but I do believe it to be true that every living being on this earth \u201cwalks in the valley of the shadow of death\u201d every day\u2026and that we need not be afraid. Not for any religious or spiritual reason, not because we are being watched or guided (though I don\u2019t necessarily disbelieve that either), but because we have a choice<\/em> as to whether or not we let that fact affect us. When something like this happens we can choose to close the door in the world in fear or we can grieve, and choose otherwise.<\/p>\n

We have the chance to step onto this incredible ride, to take this amazing<\/em> adventure where nothing is predictable; a ride that\u2019s full of zigs and zags and corkscrew turns, that pulls negative G\u2019s and turns your stomach upside down. We all<\/em> have that chance, no matter what we do \u2013 whether you\u2019re out here drifting on Mama Ocean like me, or whether you\u2019re sitting behind double protected glass in a high rise office. We all<\/em> have that choice. Make the right one. Yes, things can happen, yes things will<\/em> happen, and one day \u2013 whenever that is \u2013 the other side of the veil is waiting for us all. But for so many of us, that day is not<\/em> today; so cherish that.<\/p>\n

Someday, we will all, every one of us one day, play the losing card\u2026that\u2019s a fact of life. Simple biology\u2026until then? Enjoy the game.<\/p>\n

Do all those crazy things that you never thought you had the time or the money to do, take your loved ones to dinner, bungee jump off a perfectly good building, sit by a fresh water stream and stare at the fish \u2013 whatever it is that you need<\/em> to do. Yes, you could get hurt, yes, there\u2019s always danger\u2026but you could just as easily get hurt crossing the street as you could go up in a float plane and never come back. Tragedy should not make you want to wrap yourself in bubblewrap\u2026it shouldn\u2019t make you reckless either \u2013 but living life without enjoying the ride isn\u2019t actually living\u2026<\/p>\n

If only because\u2026it could have been you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life should not be a calm and quiet journey from birth to grave. Life should be a rollercoaster that slides into the end \u2013 martini in one hand, chocolate in the other screaming \u201cMAN! What a ride!\u201d Sitting in the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[80,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-northern-exposure-2015","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-Zy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3818,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions\/3818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}