Happy where you are?

**If you haven’t heard the previous episode(s), I strongly urge you to start with Episode 1. (‘Cause it’s a story and all…)**

I’m reminded by Episode 1 of the podcast that I wanted not only to share what it’s like to be out there cruising, but also just perhaps shed some light on what cruising can teach us about life.

As I sit here this morning in the cockpit of Jacie Sails sipping some “Relaxed Mind” herbal tea, I’ve frankly been stressing a little about this episode. Well, and many of the previous ones.

I’m on a juice fast. I made this trip down to the boat with one main goal in mind: Get the next episode out. And don’t take the boat out until I do! The juice fast has kept things simple. And the boat has not gone out.

Sitting on the companionway step facing aft at the cockpit table, I hear the murmur of voices from my good neighbors behind me.

Halyards clang on various masts around the basin. Some people don’t like the sound. They are big beautiful wind chimes to me.

The cattle boat going to Egmont Key pulls up to the dock and the mate shouts, “Hey John, will you turn on the pump out, please?”

A puff. The wind caresses the back of my left shoulder. South.

My friend Jason heads out in the Tow Boat US power cat.

A sheepshead dines on the barnacles on the next boat, making little sucking splashes.

The rhythms of Gulfport Municipal Marina on a slow Monday morning, tranquil. But inevitably I drift back to Episode 14, in progress.

This Moment

It’s easy to take for granted this moment. We’re so easily distracted. Smartphones, cable TV, social media.

I think most humans in the First World probably have an attention deficit problem.

So many gadgets and things to have. So many tools for productivity! Should I write this post in Ulysses? Scrivener? Bear? Drafts? Calmly Writer? (Drafts wins for the moment.)

The Tortoise

Some of my friends (and particularly my podcasting friends) would be entirely correct to point out perhaps I take longer than necessary to produce these episodes.

In my defense, I’ve always kind of produced things by first creating a little “nest,” arranging this twig here and that one there, maybe removing a piece of debris here.

And as far as I can remember, I’ve been pretty proud of everything I’ve produced so far: records, this podcast, my Dad’s podcast, the book…

If you’ve heard the podcast, hopefully, you can appreciate the attention to detail. But clearly I need things to move faster. Strike that. I need to move things faster.

People are waiting on the next episode. I have Patreon patrons now. Certainly not bad problems to have, but…I’ve got to untangle this process, make it faster without sacrificing the quality that I want.

(Okay, moving this post to Ulysses now.?)

Just Too Tired?

One of my biggest problems is that I didn’t have the discipline or the extra energy during my solo trip to properly organize the various pieces of audio I was getting on my iPhone, portable recorder and fancy recorder – right then. Now it’s a stinky massive audio file poop.

There’s a lot of great stuff there. Sound effects I can use which really came from my trip; little monologue soundbites that show my mood during the trip as well as what was going on around me; ambient location sound. But these are all jumbled up together — sometimes on the same file — and scattered across multiple devices.

Did I mention I was creating this podcast as I went along?

So yeah, I’ve made it much harder than necessary to do what I want.

(Not that there’s a template for this. This feels exponentially harder than my interview–based previous podcast, The Multimedia Ninja.)

Story and Flow

However, I’ve also realized (perhaps more importantly) that this podcast, (as cleverly as I may try and produce it) is not about Audio. It’s about Story.

As I hint at in this episode, I don’t necessarily need the exact audio from the exact time to tell the story. And if I forget something a little bit — maybe this thing happened after breakfast, not before — it’s not tragic.

And while I need to better plan and organize (and immediately ingest and catalog!) my audio going forward, what I need to do now is just remember the story and find the best flow I can to glide through the process.

Happy Where I Am

But meanwhile, I can take comfort in knowing that I’m solving this puzzle as best I can. And that I keep improving.

And heck, maybe you can just consider that as part of the excitement of listening to the podcast.

When will he get the next podcast out? Will he get faster? Stay tuned.

It’s easy to take for granted this moment. We’re so easily distracted. Smartphones, cable TV, social media…

But seriously, I will get faster. And it does me no good to beat myself up about the past.

So I’m going to take a moment now to enjoy the sights and sounds of the marina, in this beautiful paradise that I’ve almost taken for granted, before setting up my microphone and laptop to start voicing Episode 14.

And I’m happy where I am.

Do you find yourself spinning your wheels? Or maybe you’ve had an experience that changed your perspective and allowed you to start enjoying the moment? Let me know in the comments below!