68. Storm at Sea

The Bible passage is about the time Jesus and His disciples took a boat out on the Sea of Galilee. He must have been exhausted, because He kept sleeping even when a storm kicked up. I can imagine the panicked disciples looking at each other. “Should we wake Him up?” “You wake Him up.” “No, you.” “It was your idea”. Well, they all did, and He calmed the storm with a rebuke to the wind and sea.

This makes me think of my husband. It took 35 years of marriage, and 38 years since the day we met, for me to figure him out.
Nah, I don’t have him all figured out; never will. That’s what keeps it interesting.
I knew I was getting an energetic, active man when I signed on for life. He surfed, he fished, he camped, he made stuff with his hands, so many things I liked about him. I knew I wouldn’t get bored. But silly me, I thought he’d CHANGE when he settled into the domestic life. The restless activity would be replaced with restful lounges together: by our pool, or in our patio chairs, or in our hammock, or . . .
But the man does not sit still. There is always something that must be done before he can sit and rest awhile with me. If we’re at the beach, he’s surfing. At the lake, he’s fishing. At the mountains, he’s building the fire. So it just doesn’t happen.
I just recently discovered that he can actually lounge – as long as he is next to something else that is moving. I realized this when we were on our Panama Canal cruise. There were many days at sea, and he would spend hours out on that deck.
That’s it. He has to move if he is surrounded by stillness. But if there’s an ocean swirling and swelling, give my man a deck chair on the port side of a ship, and he will sit and rest.

This was a rare sighting, not to be repeated once we returned to our home on land. Unfortunately, we don’t live right next to a large body of water. And I don’t think a lake would work with my theory, unless the wind blew up some choppy waves on the surface.
That’s the thing about the ocean. It is constantly moving, yet it stays in one place.
What a fit description for my husband.

I know you don’t care one whit about my aha moment regarding my better half. But I write it down because I secretly think that someday my kids will read this. It will humor them and they’ll remember their hardworking dad with affection. And I think you skim and skip over my words to find the things that interest you, my readers, so thanks for this.