Big shout out to Christopher Cross for writing such a perfectly appropriate song… Sailing. If you know anything about me, you know my very favorite place is on a boat. He says, “Just a dream and the wind to carry me and soon I will be free.” And that, folks, is exactly how I feel when I am under sail.
And if there is one thing that has been absolutely consistent throughout my journey as a single woman in Chicago, it’s been sailing. I escape to the water at least twice a week to race my little red boat. A guy I sail with said, “Life is better on this side of Lake Shore Drive,” and I couldn’t agree more.
One of the things I struggle with as a single woman is having a person to share the daily ups and downs with. I have great friends… and I’m sure I’ll be spending plenty of time with them on these pages… who I see regularly and we do share our lives with one another. But, you always have to set the context and catch people up. And really, many those daily things come and go quickly so they end up being “in the moment” sort of things. Or, I’ve just figured out how to process more on my own (which is not a bad thing).
But, the beauty about being on the boat is that none of that matters because everything fades away as soon as we shove off. We might talk a little about our day, but really it’s about the partnership between my shipmates J. and S., our little boat Rhubarb, and the wind, and the water. Fairly quickly we get dialed in on the race. My brain quiets. And we sail away…
Solitude in the City 