Local Rowing or Global Rowing?
I haven’t written at all about sculling lately. There’s been nothing to write. I haven’t been out on my boat in a very long time. This is ok, I decided … after having too much angst about it for too long. I had to decide there was a reason beyond my wisdom to STOP me from pushing myself so hard physically for a season after too much injury.
Of course, I could blame it on treading in water instead of sculling on water (too much work and no play) and being fed a rich diet by a very good cook (my Venezuelan assistant who did not agree with my views on carbohydrates), but in the end, something just had to give — and for a while, it was my training.
I am supposed to be a health and fitness expert, which was great while I ran a retreat. Having all the time to do what it took to be healthy and fit then was easy. It was my “job.” I was simply monetizing my lifestyle by letting other people do it with me and pay me for it. It’s a bit more inconvenient as you all know when you have to fit it in around doing things to pay the bills that have nothing to do with preparing organic raw food, working out, doing sports and spa treatments all day long. That’s why I decided to turn my big house again into an “eco-community.” First to surround myself again with people who want to live the way I want to live and to have trustworthy people in the house to take care of it while I travel. And it looks like I’ll be doing a lot of that soon.
I have also been taking the time again to do for myself what I know I need to do to restore my adrenals, cleanse toxins (all you have to do in this world to be toxic is breathe) from my body, AND drop a few of those carbo-pounds that have turned me into a lightweight instead of a flyweight. My wonderful MAAS Flyweight rowing shell has a low weight-limit that I am slightly exceeding at the moment. 😦
There, I’ve admitted it.
But all is well and I am still strong and fit. The important thing is that I am healthier now that I have taken a break. I am completely injury free, my joints and adrenals are happy and I am ready to build up my training again wisely and gradually — while eating the healthy organic high percentage raw and low percentage carb diet my body wants.
Meanwhile the bread-pastry-cheese-rice-pasta-ice-cream nazi Trina (she did love sprouting though … and I do take responsibility for eating what she put in front of me) is cooking fattening arepas for her mother now in Valencia, Venezuela and taking care of her after several surgeries. Soon, in advance of my arrival to Caracas, she will be testifying about my medical invention before the Ministerio of her country. She is quite familiar with my device (that she misses sooooo much being able to use since she had to leave the USA because her visa ran out) that the government of her homeland began to pursue last summer through a former colleague of hers who is high up in the current administration.
I say my arrival … it has to do with whether they invite me. They want the device, yes, but we will have to come to terms. My caveat is that it not be distributed solely in A L B A Countries, but in First World Countries too. That’s a bit sticky with the political climate between Venezuela and the US at the moment, but people need it everywhere. It’s a latin telanovela. There is nothing boring about my life!
Tune in next week to see if the much maligned, misunderstood and now mysteriously ill leader of the richest country in America’s Backyard will ever forgive the ALL POWERFUL First World Country of the Americas that is still giving his best friend’s island the Cold Shoulder long past the Cold War and just get OVER all those assassination attempts by the all-pervasive intelligence agency whose name see I aaain’t gonna mention, that may well have it’s roots in the dark past of the Es Es.
¿Y quien es el padre de Elena en la verdad? ¿Miguel? ¿Guillermo? ¿Louis?
Even more mysterious is how have I been writing all those long emails in Spanish to my Power of Attorney (El Chino) in Venezuela and understanding the emails he is writing to me. Do I have a Spanish Angel? Well soon I will have an “in-house” Spanish translator/angel visiting this week (perfect timing Universe! Thank you!) named Juan Torres. As Trina always said, my Spanish is good enough that I wouldn’t starve, but I’m not ready to go have in-depth conversations about manufacturing and technical things in Spanish when I barely know the words in English. I joke (but it’s TRUE) that when I began the process of prototyping my medical device, the only technical works I knew to google to find the components I needed were do-hickie and thinga-ma-giggy! I know more now, but I had to put myself through my own personal “engineering school” the hard way.
Juan will be here just in time to be by my side for some Skype conference calls coming up as momentum is building in the matter of manufacturing my medical device in Latin America. There are other opportunities coming at me from several directions spanning many of my projects and inventions so I will be listening closely as I am still in Quantum Superposition — as to which position to snap into next. But just so you know, I AM UNLIMITED, all is easy, and I intend to do it ALL. I’ll be making some big decisions soon. But I’m completely calm about it since all I have to do is listen. ¡Todo es fácil!
So will I be Local Rowing or Global Rowing in the next few months?
I am fully prepared and ready to go for both! Either way it’s adventure … so if you’re also ready and feel CALLED to a life of magic and miracles and FUN, then join me!!
Jen’s and My Most Excellent Caribbean Adventure
Andrea Rose ~ Second Mate
As Jen has written, she, my dear friend Captain Butch and I spent eight wonderful days and nine lovely nights aboard the Chanticleer, a 43ft. sailing yacht, in the British Virgin Islands earlier this month. Since our return I’ve not had an opportunity to write about this epic adventure. Perhaps I’ve been in denial about being back and could not quite bring myself to admit that I am not going to wake up from the dream to find myself being gently rocked in my cabin aboard the good ship Chanticleer. Alas, it is true, I am indeed back in ‘real life’, on dry land. So, I shall soothe my land-locked psyche with reminiscences and observations about our delightful time together in Paradise.
The Adventure Begins
I impulsively invited Jenifer to join us on the trip before even meeting her in person. Her ad for a mini eco-community appeared right before my eyes on craigslist on a page I seldom visit. I went to her website and felt an instant affinity. I e-mailed her immediately to say, “I HAVE to meet you!” But later I e-mailed it would have to wait a couple of weeks since I was going on this cruise, that is, unless she wanted to come along. 
Amazingly, she accepted. She explained later she often receives invitations to join friends, all expenses paid, in wonderful destinations (Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Long Island …) and has turned them down to continue to work. But this time she said when she read the obviously casual invite…bells and whistles went off and she KNEW immediately she was going and that somehow all the logistics for making the arrangements in 48 hours would fall into place. She told me she had just made the decision that from now on in her life ‘all is easy.’ And easy it was.
Prior our departure…for a moment I was a wee bit (but only a wee bit) concerned about spending eight days on a boat with someone I’d only met a few days before. In spite of the fact that Jen and I connected very deeply immediately upon e-meeting, one never knows what may happen when one is traveling with folks, but my wispy concerns were quickly swept away on the Caribbean breeze and we deepened our new friendship to the point where I truly cannot remember when Jenifer was not in my life. It is as though we are long-lost sisters who reconnected (finally) in this life to continue walking our previously parallel paths together.
Butch and I planned the trip to be a vacation, and so it was. When Jen joined the crew as First Mate, however, we all agreed for the trip to become a “FreeWill” tour for The Global Rowing Club as well. I had been very deeply moved and intrigued by all I read on this website (though I still have much reading to do as I have only begun to scratch the surface) and I felt a resounding resonance with her purpose…it is congruent with mine, though I have been hesitant to publicize this fact to all but the few in my life who are of like-mind.
Yes, Jenifer seemed too good to be true. Butch had pronounced that she had saved our trip the first night we met in person, but we took her at her word that she knew how to sail and it remained to be seen. What I learned about Jenifer from discovering she is in fact an accomplished and knowledgeable sailor who far exceeded any expectations Butch even dared to have…is that nothing she says or writes about herself can even come close to the truth of who she is, let alone overstating or bragging. I did not find egoism in her. She delivered the goods and then some.
I had only been sailing a few times before with Butch, a couple times as a fledgling first-mate-in-training, but mostly as a novice deck hand / passenger. This trip was different; as the sailing lingo (much of it still Greek to me) flew between Butch and Jen, Jen would stop and explain the words and the geometry of sailing to me to keep me in the loop. She even spent several sessions to teach me a few ‘must know’ nautical knots. She apologized that she could only teach me a ‘left-handed’ bowline, the absolute ‘must know knot of all!’ Even Butch got into it. I graduated with flying colors when I could tie one in less than 5 seconds without looking!!! I learned a lot and advanced from novice deck hand and ‘galley wench’ to become quite a useful second mate. Now Butch is bragging to everyone he’s never had a better crew.
As we island-hopped along Sir Francis Drake Channel in the BVI, we saw many beautiful aspects of Mother Earth, taking hundreds of photos in efforts to capture the exquisitely pure beauty She offers. We also connected with several truly remarkable people along the way. All the while, the bond between we fellow mariners continued to grow in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, allowing for a very peaceful, drama-free (what is that???) experience. When one spends nine days on a boat with someone, one gets to know them quite well as closely confined quarters tend to engender familiarity, be that positive or not. I am happy that my excursion with a new, hitherto unknown friend was a very positive experience. I found Jenifer to be a deeply genuine person, consistently and vehemently true to and on point with her Purpose. She never misses an opportunity to share her visions, dreams, hopes and purpose with those who have ears to hear. She walks her talk. How extraordinarily refreshing and hope-inspiring…
At this point, I am still not clear about exactly where we were when, as we visited so many places. Jen called our trip: “If It’s Tuesday It’s Belgium.” But she is putting together a slideshow for this website and for Butch to present to his Yacht Club, and Butch will fill us in on what pictures were taken where so I can bring back into focus the blurry edges of my memories and put names to places. Or not…perhaps the magic of such a fabulous experience lies partly in the misty remembrances and all I truly need is to be able to close my eyes and have a soothing sense of brilliantly blue waters, lush green mountainsides, the gentle (and sometimes not-so-gentle) rocking of Mother Ocean underneath me, and delightful companions, to the soundtrack of Quito Rymer in the background, singing, “I’m going back to the islands….”
I now have no doubt I will be going back to the islands with Jen to assist with several projects our visit there may have catalyzed. I observed how she interacted with people: influential people as well as shop workers and waitresses who she treated the same…no difference in the high level of respect she showed everyone. She discussed the spectrum of possibilities encompassed in her plan according to the interests of the person with whom she chatted…with passion and compassion and was very well-received. I became even more convinced as I learned more and more of how much she is capable of co-creating with people and organizations to propel them forward in realizing their goals and dreams…as in every case, their projects are already on her flow chart of Revenue Streams. She truly is meant to facilitate people and organizations to be able to get beyond their present limitations. The biggest obstacle for Jen is exactly that she does seem too good to be true. Somehow, there has to be a way to get people to trust their first impressions of her and open up to how she can help them as “the benefactor of dreams.” I have the opportunity in person to experience Jen in the way she presents herself on this website…as a real person, strong and fragile, capable, enduring, unflagging in her optimism and infinitely willing to go anywhere and do whatever it takes. She has given everything she has to remaining true to her calling even to the point of being willing to lose everything. She is reaching out for help so that she can help. She is for real and my synchronistic discovery of her was a miraculous answer to my own prayers to be able to live and do my purpose. I will do whatever I can to promote and ultimately bring to fruition The Global Rowing Club’s vision of proliferating The Cosmos Renewable Off-Shore Energy Platforms in the seas and oceans of the world. This is a Big Dream, but I have always believed in my Heart of Hearts (if not always in my limited human understanding) that if it is indeed in line with the Universe, it will be.
The Global Rowing Club 