needs and wants

As with all worthwhile journeys, this one began before pushing off from the shore - prompting questions and pushing at the borders of my comfort zone. The journey started as a vague dream some years ago, and then last week became a clear intention.

I was intending to leave this morning, but weather and a trip to the hospital for Kim's youngest child Hope, who has been suffering a viral attack for over a week, meant I had a little more time to pack the kayak properly, and double check I had all the essentials.


Our society is driven by a propaganda machine promoting every kind of consumption, and promising pleasure, fulfillment, and happiness through acquisition of external objects. But we are consuming the very planet we rely on for the survival of ourselves, and the generations that follow. We are living through the 6th greatest extinction in history and it has been caused by our culture.


Making mental lists, and adding things that I might need, I noticed the assumptions I make. I have slowly been regaining my perspective and learning to discriminate between needs and wants, impulses and desires - somehow this trip is a chance to reflect on life's basic needs and consider what is sustainable?

• What do I need to keep dry and warm? How much food do I need? What kind of food? What clothing? What kind of shelter?
  

Fears seem closely related to wants and needs. As I packed the kayak this afternoon I became aware of some subtle fears and what-if's. The unknowns can bring up fear, a useful survival mechanism to be sure. What if the wind comes up and blows me offshore? What if I hurt myself while out there alone? Then there are the lesser fears of simply being uncomfortable, of being cold, or wet, or having to sleep on a hard rocky beach, of being hungry.

It seems that it would be simpler to stay put in my warm and dry home on the hill, but I am prompted by an impulse similar to my friend's motto: "make change your friend," along with a desire to take some retreat time before our baby arrives in a few weeks.

I may get to push off tomorrow morning on the high tide.