Yesterday, my old buddy, Conrad left his physical body and set sail to the vast unkown. I met him and his wife, Juanita at Oxbow Marina in the California Delta in June of 2000. They were living on the boat they had built in their Idaho backyard. Her name was the Cheryl Lee, after their daughter. Every weekend the marina owners put on a beautiful, free breakfast buffet for the boaters. I had noticed this tall, lanky fellow with his beard and ponytail and introduced myself, after sitting at their table.We became best of friends.Conrad and Juanita helped fiberglass my hardtop, he designed and built my folding benchseat, gave me endless hours of free advise, and handcarved a replica of Shatoosh, which sits on top of my depthsounder. His creative footprint is all over Shatoosh.
We would meander through the endless restaurants in the delta, expanding our limited boat menus with tacos, crawdads, chinese, mexican, salmon, steehead and striper bass. When Too Tall Tom brought his newly purchased Albin 25 to the marina, we quickly added him to our cozy group. We had more fun, living on our boats, finishing out all the numerous projects, fishing and cruising.
This fall I went out to Idaho and spent some time with them. See my blog in October 2010. His health had taken a turn, so it was an opportunity for me to help him with Reiki Treatments and to be able to thank him for his generous support and friendship. He was the driving force for me to take my boat to the Columbia and Snake Rivers. In the cool evenings, we spent lots of hours sitting up in their crow's nest on the Cheryl Lee and I would listen to all their cruising stories, as they navigated the numerous locks and dams of the Snake and Columbia rivers. Dreams immerged from the many seeds they planted in my psyche.
The other night I was awakened, by what one would call, a prophetic dream. Conrad, my twin and I were on a boat traveling in the dark and there was no one at the helm. I felt we should tie the boat up for the night, but my twin stated we should just drift for the night. I asked Conrad and my twin to show me the charts and the plan for this journey. They said they had none. I was adamant, to go on a journey, we needed charts and plans. They both, said again, that there were none.
Upon awakening from the dream I knew, intuitively, that my friend was near death and before I could call, his son called to give me the news that he was under hospice care. Yesterday, as I was out making my round of errands, I had the sudden urge to pull over and make a call to his wife. My ole buddy had just died.
So, on our last journey across the sea of consciousness, we are adrift, and we can no longer be at the helm. We have surrendered and have let go of our earthly attachments. God is steering our vessel, and he needs no charts or plans to bring us home to be with him.
