But of course some of us don't live here in Kona and can't always show her just how much she means to us in person. Sam, one of the guys here on base (aka Sarah's boyfriend, woot, woot.) Suggested we have a tiny "We Appreciate Bernice" party.
So we did.
It was the perfect excuse to hang out, love on Mama and enjoy a beach picnic at least once this trip.
In the end, we had two empty wine bottles that Jonathan suggested we write messages on before tossing them into the ocean.
We may or may not have written out a "SWF" ad for The Mama for the first bottle, with her phone number included.
And we wrote two stanzas from Sir Francis Drake's "Disturb us Oh Lord" prayer for the second bottle. Kyle has two stanzas tattooed on his back and he felt the prayers of a pirate were fitting for our ocean endeavor.
It was the perfect ending to our soiree. Now-float little bottles, float!
And don't forget how much we all love you, Mama.
Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true Because we have dreamed too little, When we arrived safely Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things we possess We have lost our thirst For the waters of life; Having fallen in love with life, We have ceased to dream of eternity And in our efforts to build a new earth, We have allowed our vision Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, To venture on wider seas Where storms will show your mastery; Where losing sight of land, We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back The horizons of our hopes; And to push into the future In strength, courage, hope, and love.