I remember when I first moved to Jamaica. People couldn’t believe it. It seemed so exotic. I thought so, too. For the first year I pinched myself in the arm every day as I was driving with The Blue Mountains on one side and the Caribbean ocean on the other. I’m living in Jamaica!
People seemed to think that everyday life would give way to a more paradise like lifestyle with sand and palm trees and no obligations. But of course there was laundry, cooking, grocery shopping and bill payment just like everywhere else.
And I didn’t do any of it on the beach.
For a while a tried to explain that, strangely enough, my life in the Caribbean was very much like my life in New York. But then I realized that people wanted to believe in paradise. So I just let them create any picture they wanted about my life in the tropics.
Two weeks before going home to visit I always made sure to tan so that I would look like I lived in tropics. Anything else would have been an insult to anyone living in colder climates.
A few years later we moved to Barbados. Another island. Still tropical. It felt spiritually right to arrive there. I remember that’s what I said t my husband. I couldn’t explain why it felt that way. It just did.
In retrospect it was exactly what it turned out to be. The three years we spent in Barbados I lived like I was in a retreat. Except when I did laundry, cooking, grocery shopping or bill payment of course. But that was all part of the retreat.
After eight years in the Caribbean it’s time to move on.
This time to Miami, Florida. I will continue to teach yoga and develop my programs. I will most likely do some laundry, cooking, grocery shopping and bill payment as well. The rest is blank.
As I think back on our many moves I realize that each place has had a certain meaning for me. In each place I learned something important that I brought with me.
This time the purpose is to move on with a clean slate. I have left all the burdens behind. Days of joy, light, love await us. Now even difficult days are days of joy. Everything is as it should.
People seemed to think that everyday life would give way to a more paradise like lifestyle with sand and palm trees and no obligations. But of course there was laundry, cooking, grocery shopping and bill payment just like everywhere else.
And I didn’t do any of it on the beach.
For a while a tried to explain that, strangely enough, my life in the Caribbean was very much like my life in New York. But then I realized that people wanted to believe in paradise. So I just let them create any picture they wanted about my life in the tropics.
Two weeks before going home to visit I always made sure to tan so that I would look like I lived in tropics. Anything else would have been an insult to anyone living in colder climates.
A few years later we moved to Barbados. Another island. Still tropical. It felt spiritually right to arrive there. I remember that’s what I said t my husband. I couldn’t explain why it felt that way. It just did.
In retrospect it was exactly what it turned out to be. The three years we spent in Barbados I lived like I was in a retreat. Except when I did laundry, cooking, grocery shopping or bill payment of course. But that was all part of the retreat.
After eight years in the Caribbean it’s time to move on.
This time to Miami, Florida. I will continue to teach yoga and develop my programs. I will most likely do some laundry, cooking, grocery shopping and bill payment as well. The rest is blank.
As I think back on our many moves I realize that each place has had a certain meaning for me. In each place I learned something important that I brought with me.
This time the purpose is to move on with a clean slate. I have left all the burdens behind. Days of joy, light, love await us. Now even difficult days are days of joy. Everything is as it should.
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