Where is Paradise?

We've been away from our little island paradise for a month now.  The warm, lazy sea breeze and sandy beaches have been replaced by crisp, foggy mornings and concrete sidewalks with red and golden leaves swirling lazily in puddles of rain water.

I have finally come to realize that Paradise doesn't have to be just one physical location.  It can be anywhere  that the mind, body and soul are in harmonious symphony.  I am there when I feel the grains of white sand in my fingertips and taste the salt of the turquoise sea.  I am also there when I am holding Naimah's soft chubby hand as we sit on a wooden bench at the park, watching the ducks bob their little heads in the pond in search of a snack.  Physically, those locations are 5929 kilometres apart, but somehow they take my spirit to the same place...Paradise.

Matt Damon & Wyclef Jean help victims of Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike has left a path of destruction in Haiti, the nation that shares the island of Hispanola with the Dominican Republic.

Celebrities Wyclef Jean and Matt Damon arrived to help hand out food to the people, many of whose homes were destroyed by flooding.  They are encouraging more people to help the United Nations raise more than US$100 million for an estimated 800,000 Haitians in need of aid.  Read the full story here.

It's Hurricane Season

Keep an eye on the latest storm info at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/.

Cocos

Can't reach the top shelf? No problem!

Update

The National Hurrican Center is monitoring a possible tropical storm heading this way.  Last night there was thunder and lightning, which would not have disturbed my sleep too much except that the neighbor's car alarm kept going off.  When it finally finished several minutes of honking and sirens, it started all over again.  This happened several times during the night.  I wonder if the neighbor took some kind of secret pleasure in keeping us all awake.  Surely he could not have slept through all that noise.

We woke up to intermittent electricity and heavy rain.  I walked with Naimah to the plaza, an ordeal in and of itself.  Firstly, the only shoes I brought are flip-flops, which do not work well when wet.  Secondly, the street was flooded in several areas, which forced me to walk in the middle of the road carrying Naimah and my computer.  The drivers in both directions were quite curteous though, passing us slowly and allowing us as much room as possible.

Now we are sitting at a cozy restaurant in the plaza, having salad and fries, and finally catching up on emails and blogs. Naimah is having a nap, and I finally have a few minutes to myself.  Ahhh, peace in paradise...

Que Sera, Sera

It always happens when you are away for a while.  Things have changed.  They happen without asking for our approval, or advice.  I wonder why we always wish things would go back to the way used to be.  That way was new and different once upon a time.  Change will happen whether we like it or not.  Better to learn to like it than to live wistully in the past, not able to appreciate the new and wonderful things that are in front of us.

The beach at my beloved villa is not the same as it once was.  Buildings have burned down, now just a shell of what they once were.  The road is blocked off and there is a new path to the beach.  It is a nice path, but not the one I used to walk upon.  I keep reminding myself that it is a nice path, and I appreciate the hard work that went into making it.  Each tile handlaid by someone's father or brother, or son.

The cuban masion that I was in love with has been seized by the FDA and is closed up and empty.  The big plasma tv at their pool bar is gone.  There will be no more pool parties there.  Now I am glad that I didn't live there.  Although I still wish I had been invited to one of thier parties.

Now it is time to make new memories here.  Naimah is very curious about her new surroundings.  There are sounds she has never heard before, new voices and humid temperatures.  For her, nothing has changed.  She was just a few months in the womb when we were last here.  Everything is new and exciting, as it should be.

On Top Of Cloud 9

3 More Sleeps!

Just a quick note to say that we are returning to the Dominican Republic this weekend!  I am very excited to return to the turquoise waters and palm trees, and introduce Naimah to her Caribbean heritage.  I'm not sure what my internet situation will be like there but I will try to update the blog as much as possible.

The Journey Continues...

I can hear the Caribbean shores calling my name.  It seems so far away, and yet it is always with me in my heart and my mind, and in the face of Naimah.  Every time I look at her I am taken back to the magical place that I am connected to within my soul.  Her passport is on its way and soon, very soon we will be back in our little tropical paradise.  My happy yellow villa (pictured here) is now home to someone else, but that is okay.  I hope they too are building memories there that they will look back on with a smile one day.