It’s 7am and I’m sitting on the beach in Grand Cayman. Despite all efforts, the sun is firmly hidden behind thick clouds that predict rain. This is good for me having developed a sun allergy that now prevents me from soaking up the sun like a true tourist.
There is something totally ridiculous about a barefoot island girl like me being forced to stay indoors when its sunny. Ridiculous and possibly ironic. How does someone with a passion for being outdoors survive staying indoors without losing my mind? With great difficulty. I’ve played scrabble, watched TV, surfed the net even written a few lines, but my mind drifts constantly to my family whose voices float on the wind, through the glass pane doors and into my prison.
And just then, in the midst of my pity party gratitude sets in. Koffee’s song, Toast, rolls around in my mind and I am reminded that I have so much else to be grateful for. “Blessings fall pon mi right hand, mi haffi give thanks fi the earning, the journey…gratitude is a must.”
Yes, GRATITUDE IS A MUST! Nuff people are stuck indoors in hospital beds, prison cells, gripped by agoraphobia, victims of human trafficking and the list goes on and on. My confinement is for my own good, but it is not restrictive. I can do whatever I choose within the space I have selected as my sanctuary. And I can avoid the sun by hanging out in the expansive and always buzzing lobby/bar area of Margaritaville next door. I am no prisoner except in my own mind.
And so, once again, like I did yesterday morning and in the evening, I go to the beach when it is healthy for me to do so and enjoy the water before the day heats up and the worst of another sunny 95 degree day takes hold on the island or at sunset as it seeks out another side of the World to bake. 95 degrees in the shade. That’s way too hot to be outside any way! Selah !