She gives me way too much credit as she always does. She says I bought her a boat. But that’s not how the conversation went.

Paige had been looking at boats for a while. She learned to sail in college and fell in love with it. Having her own boat was one of her dreams.

So when she wanted to talk about getting a boat, after my Barkley had died, I only had one question.

Is this on your Plane Wheel List?

It was. So I told her no more discussion was necessary.

And the Rebel Phoenix took its maiden voyage on November 4, 2017, with Captain Paige, her dad, her brother and me. It was fun. It was really fun.

That actually takes a lot for me to say because 1) I know nothing about sailing, 2) I get motion sick at the drop of a hat, and 3) I’m a terrified of water – well, not water so much as drowning.

There have been a few adjustments made. The first was a strong investment in motion sickness prevention medicine. We pretty much Green Eggs and Hammed Dramamine. And for the unfortunate times when the preventative measures did not stick, we made sure the cabin was well stocked with trash bags so that I could throw up all dignified like.

We also made sure the boat was fully stocked with lots and lots of life preservers. I always wear one. And it’s fancy too. It will inflate as soon as I hit the water rather than waiting on a manual release. That way if I hit my head and get knocked unconscious, it will still inflate. This is important to me. Very, very important.

Finally, I took a sailing class. There are several reasons for that – the main one being that Paige kept yelling out all these words that I swear she was just making up. Jib, tack, jibe, spinnaker, and so on. The unfortunate thing was that because I didn’t know what she was saying, I couldn’t help. The other reason is that I had to know how it all works, the whole sailing thing. I find it difficult to do something that I don’t understand.

(Which takes me back to math classes in school. I remember asking my algebra teacher in the 9^th grade during one of her lectures “Why?” She looked at me, smiled, and said, “You have the wrong department for ‘why.’ You need head to the science department for ‘why.’)

Now I understand sailing. It’s fun. It’s not my passion but I like it.

The thing I like the most, however, is watching her.

It is her passion. She gets excited about it. She wants to share the excitement with everyone else loves having people out on the boat with her. She gets excited even if people aren’t with her. It gives her joy.

It also gives her a place of her own, where she can have “me time” that she needs. She has a place that is hers, that makes her happy. And she wants me to share that joy as often as I can.

Her eyes light up.

And that’s my passion, my joy.

I didn’t buy her a boat, but if I had known then what I know now…