The People With Me Everyday

When we each had the brief chance to add a Mother's Day note to the blog a couple days ago, I was in the middle of dish duty and helping wrap up a short-handed galley clean-up, then was immediately pulled above deck to help set the jib. I missed the opportunity to wish you a Happy Mothers Day on the exact day, but your omnipresence in my life transcends time, distance, and holidays. Mom, Ooma, Tete, Gigi: I feel you here with me everyday. 

Mom, I feel you here with me in every moment when I am challenged to push beyond my fears. On the second day of sailing, when a momentary reprieve from seasickness allowed me to jump back in on watch duties, I was put at the helm. Steering through 16 foot swells in the Molokai Channel, the boat keeling over so much that the starboard side almost sloshed underwater and waves sprayed over port deck, I was terrified. Then I thought about you thinking about me, relying on me being brave. You have always given me the confidence to steer my boat through rough seas. And I managed to stay on at the helm all the way through. After a few days, it is now my favorite watch duty.

Ooma, I feel you here with me at every opportunity I have to enjoy spending time with my shipmates. You have taught me so much about friendship, in the ways you center your life around people. Whenever I tell you about my anxieties with school/work/the future and seek advice, you always coolly remind me that everything is about people. Thinking about you thinking about me here on the boat, I want to make you proud by putting friendships first:

laughing, singing, cooking, eating, playing all together.

Tete, I feel you here during every moment in which I take an extra pause, and intentionally relish it. It brings me immeasurable joy to witness the joy you find in every day, from spectacular cross-country adventures to America's most beautiful places, to the everyday but still wonder-filled Trader Joes runs and home-cooked meals (you're the only one I know who loves grocery shopping as much as I do), to each treasured moment with friends and family. Here, I try to remind myself that each moment is a priceless gift. 

Gigi, I feel you here with me at every moment in which I feel the thrill of adventure. Traversing the fjords to Antarctica, the Great Wall to the Inca Trail, you are the explorer I dream of becoming, and I try to walk in your footsteps each day. As I gaze out at the Southern Cross emerging at midnight just above the horizon, you are here.

Happy Mother's Day to the most important people in my life. I love you!

-Charlie Hoff