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The Art and Skill of Navigating Life Transitions
The first in a series about navigating retirement, divorce, empty nest syndrome, and the other life transitions that are part of our evolution as human beings.
My first one nearly killed me
On a warm summer afternoon the year I turned thirty, I was a cocky young man helming a speedy new catamaran off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. On board with me was a woman I’d just met who didn’t know how to sail. She had been a little reluctant to join me, so to reassure her, I showed her two life jackets strapped to the deck and promised her she would be safe.
Then, about a mile from shore, merrily skimming over the afternoon chop in a stiff breeze, my foot slipped out of the safety strap that held me on the deck. I did a backward somersault into Vineyard Sound. When I surfaced, the first thing I saw was the distant shore, and a woman with two life jackets sailing away without me.
The next ninety minutes were the longest of my life.
While my tale had a happy ending (obviously), I did not make it back to shore unscathed. I had assumed my sailing knowledge and experience were enough to keep us both safe. It was a faulty assumption, In fact, many of…
