Life Is Precious

I write with a heavy heart today.  

Last year, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with one of my best friends from days gone by, with whom I'd lost touch over the years. She was intrigued by my island story and happy for my happiness, but I was equally pleased that she had such joy in her Stateside life.  Newly into a second marriage, she was madly in love, pregnant with their baby, enjoying her older children and successful in her profession.  Life was great.

Now, the delightful baby is almost 7 months old, and today is my friend's two-year wedding anniversary.  But it is not a happy occasion.  I just learned yesterday afternoon that my friend's husband died in a motorcycle wreck the night before.

Words fail.  My heart aches.  A number of you have experienced the tragic death of a loved one.  I can't even imagine the pain and grief my friend must be experiencing right now.  It feels somewhat ironic to me that I just posted about not being a Pollyanna, having gone through my own dark days, blah, blah, blah.  That just pales in comparison.  I imagine she can only move forward in one minute intervals at the moment, that even 15 minutes feels like too much in his sudden and heart-wrenching absence.

How do you talk about Choosing the Better Life in the face of a situation like my friend's?  Amazingly, she has the strength and Grace to still assert her thankfulness for her children and the good in her life, even in the midst of all this.  As she makes her way down the beginning of this painful path, she reminds her friends to "Please, please, please kiss your loved ones and make EVERY minute count because they are soo precious."

And so I pass her reminder on to you.  Whatever you're experiencing today, it could be worse.  Let's be thankful for what we have.  If you're in the midst of your own crisis, even giving thanks for the shining sun or the comforting love of a pet is a start.  Just hold on, keep breathing, and take it one small step at a time.  Most important, grab your loved ones NOW for a big hug and tell them how much they mean to you!  Make every single moment count.

Last evening, as this was heavy on my mind and in my heart, I turned to see a glorious sunset.  My dear friend, this is for you and your beloved.

The sun is setting, but it will rise again.

 

Do You Miss It? (Island Living)

Sometimes, people will ask me, "Do you miss it?"  The specifics they're ascribing to that question depend on the context of whatever we've just been discussing.  However, it usually falls into one of two scenarios:  (1) Island Living - the micro view of the challenges inherent in living on a tiny island, or (2) Big Life Change - the macro view of how dramatically I've changed my life.  Let's tackle the first one here today.

Island Living

I've described before just how very small this island actually is.  When talking about life here, which necessarily involves limited shopping and entertainment and other resources, people will sometimes ask "Do you miss it?" with regard to a host of things.  I suppose my general answer is that I miss some things, but far fewer than you'd expect, and certainly not enough to make me anything less than enthusiastic about living here.  

So, let's talk specifics . . .  Do I miss the following?

• Friends - Yes and No.  I miss those City friends with whom I can no longer get together for a quick lunch or leisurely dinner.  But, let's face it.  In our jammed schedules, we just didn't get together THAT often.  Also, I'm blessed with friendships that stand the test of time and distance.  My very best friends remain my very best friends, no matter where they or I live.  That said, I don't have to miss the enjoyment of friendship interactions just because I live on a tiny island.  Here, I've reconnected with old friends and made many new friends.  This small island is a hub of social activity and, given the community living, I see far more friends in any given week here than I ever did in the States.  Plus, I keep up with friends, old and new, through email and social media.  God Bless the Internet to keep far-flung folks connected.

• Grocery Stores - Yes and No.  I miss being able to read a new recipe and run to the store to buy every obscure item listed, at any hour of the day or night.  Food stores here are far more limited in size, selection and hours.  However, unless the freight boat is delayed (which happens all too frequently), I can almost always get the basics:  butter, eggs, cheese, apples, oranges, onions, potatoes, lettuce, green peppers, tomatoes, lime, basic canned food and condiments.  During tourist season, the stores stock more and I can even pick up mushrooms, occasional strawberries, feta cheese and tortilla chips!  Specialty items, don't ya know.  :)  Of course, please also remember the benefits of island living - my beau brings home fresh fish, lobster and conch!  And I stock several months of meat in my deep freezer.  So, our grocery options are just fine.  Actually, when I go to the big grocery stores in the States now, I find the selection positively overwhelming and quite daunting!

• Shopping - No.  Granted, I wasn't really much of a shopper before anyway, at least not of the type to relish wandering through malls or boutiques.  I would, however, put that attorney paycheck to use and indulge in occasional fits of online shopping, which I've since curtailed.  I just don't need much and, now on a tighter shoestring, I just don't buy it!  If anything, I'm glad not to have stores around tempting me with pretty window displays.  Nope, I don't miss shopping.

• Big Box Stores - Yes.  I miss Target!  I miss being able to run out for those random things that come up as needed from Target, or Pet Smart, or Bed Bath & Beyond, etc.  I'm forced to economize and improvise by (a) deciding I really don't NEED it, (b) coming up with some alternative creation/solution/fix, or (c) adding it to the ever-present list of Things To Buy Stateside that will go in my purse with my passport on the next trip home.  Currently on my list, for example:  non-standard-sized light bulbs, bath mats, stove burner covers, flea/tick medicine, cooler bags, file folders.

• Movies - Yes.  I didn't go that often, but I do miss being able to head into a movie theater for an escape, weekend event, or simple change of pace whenever the mood strikes.  When we have time during trips to Nassau or the States, ducking into whatever box office hit is playing at the time is a favorite thing to do.

• Restaurants - Yes.  We have two restaurants regularly serving dinners at the moment.  Of course, by now I know the menus by heart.  So, while it's still a treat to go out to dinner here and have the night off from cooking (no other carry-out options!), it's just not the same.  I miss going out to a new (or favorite) restaurant, enjoying the ambiance, sitting down and being served, perusing a delicious-sounding menu and tasting every item in my mind as I read the menu, enjoying an array of dishes from excellent chefs, etc.  But, it is what it is.  I enjoy my nights out here, and I enjoy the restaurant dining experience as a treat when I travel.  Moreover, I'll tell you what I DON'T miss about restaurants - the expense and the extra pounds!  I definitely attribute my bikini-ready self to healthy home-cooking and an absence of tempting restaurant options.

• Services - Yes.  I miss easy access to doctors, dentists, vets, hair/nail salons and a host of repair services.  Sigh.  (Note to self:  time to remember your Choosing the Better Life principles - it's all good.)

• Garbage Disposal - Yes.  In fact, this may be the home amenity I miss most!  I can make do quite well with sea baths when the water is off, frequent electric outages, hand-washing dishes, limited A/C, etc.  But MAN do I miss having a garbage disposal.  Newer homes on the island do boast garbage disposals, but our system isn't adaptable to it.  (I'll spare you the intricacies of water/sewage/other pipe set-ups and systems.)  Yeah, I'm trying to create less waste and compost what I do make, but let's face it - I miss a handy little garbage disposal right there in my sink!

Interestingly (to me anyway), as I read over this list, it seems like I'm listing a lot of things that I miss when I feel like, overall, I don't miss much at all!  I think it's because this island life GIVES me so much more of things that I really value and didn't have before, that I don't really miss even those things outlined above.  I get to eat fresh fish, go snorkeling, see sharks and iguanas, walk down the road in flip-flops visiting friends along the way, romp on the beach with my dog, go to friends' houses for dinner, witness breath-taking sunsets, etc.  It's a great life!  

Perhaps the other reason I don't feel like I miss all that stuff is that I still have access to it.  I travel back to the States and elsewhere frequently enough that I get my "fix" of movies and restaurants and change of scenery.  I schedule doctors and hair cuts when I need them.  I stock up on groceries and big-box-store stuff.  I take advantage of the City amenities, but also get just enough of the City traffic and other hassles that I'm ready to come home to the island!  But I still miss my garbage disposal.  :)

Do you wonder if I miss other Stateside/City daily living amenities that I didn't mention?  Just tell me what you're curious about and I'll let you know!  As for Big Life Change and whether I miss things in that context, to be continued . . . !

Your Questions?

Dearest Blog Readers, what questions do you have so far about anything that you've read here?  Or something you're wondering about that I haven't mentioned?  Questions about island living?  Taking that leap?  Other aspects of Choosing the Better Life?  I've offered this up before, but thought I'd pose it again since we - happily - have more readers these days!  

So, fire away with what you want to know! Please post comments with your questions here, or Tweet your questions, Facebook your questions, or email your questions to me - whatever you prefer.

I'll compile them with my answers and post it all in the near future.  I'm looking forward to hearing what's on your mind!  Thanks in advance for interacting with me and the other Better Lifers.  Have a great day!

Not Just A Pollyanna!

I've been ruminating on this post for a while.  As you can tell, I try to have an upbeat approach to most things.  Yet, sometimes, with these blog posts, I've wondered if readers ever roll their eyes or think I'm just some fluffy Pollyanna.

Although I have always been a glass-half-full optimist, I believe that I'm also grounded in reality.  I was fortunate to enjoy a stable, protected, happy childhood as a solid foundation from which to springboard into the world.  As I entered adulthood and life brought its various experiences - good, bad and otherwise - my world view and life philosophy expanded.  There's a lot of garbage out there!  But, as Anne Frank said, "I still believe that people are really good at heart."  Always, my family supported me with unconditional love and encouraged me that I could do whatever I dreamed and put my mind to do.

All of this is merely by way of background in The General Development of Dawn.  However, what is REALLY at the heart of my blog philosophy of Choosing the Better Life (and some of my potentially eyeball-rolling comments) can be pinpointed more exactly . . .

As I alluded to vaguely in my About page and background blog posts, my life turned upside down a few years ago.  I don't like to discuss it, and certainly not in such a public forum, but let's just say it involved large scale emotional trauma, deception, public humiliation, heartache and the carpet of my entire life being pulled out from underneath me from several corners at once.  Not much fun, to put it lightly.

I was not nearly so optimistic in those dark days.  I really was in more of a survival mode.  A dear friend, who had suffered extreme personal tragedy in her past, thoughtfully passed on wonderful words of advice - just live your life in 15 minute increments until you can face more.  Don't worry about the rest of your life, or next year, or next month, or next week, or tomorrow, or even the next hour.  Just get through the next 15 minutes.  Brush your teeth.  Take the dog out.  Just get through the next 15 minutes.

Eventually, I came out of the fog and found peace within myself again.  With renewed Faith (having leaned on my spiritual beliefs harder during those dark days than I had in quite some time), I determined to find and follow my inner nudgings.  As I did so, I began to wonder about the next phase of my life.

Well, now I'm in that next phase, and it is WONDERFUL!  But it's NOT because I live on an island (though that helps).  It's NOT because I'm spared the office grind (though that helps, too).  It's NOT because I'm in a good relationship (yup, another helper).  It IS because I am just so very thankful for all the good in my life, down to even the smallest of things, and I try not to take anything for granted.  It IS because I remember the sting of so many negative feelings, emotions and experiences and am so thankful to be in a better place in my life.  It IS because I'm aware that it is those very experiences that pointed me toward the happy path I now travel.  Having experienced such "dark days," I am oh-so-appreciative of these much lighter days.  Even a "bad day" now is a good one!

I still have plenty of everyday problems just like the rest of the population.  Things break.  Friends disappoint.  Family annoys.  (Mother, of course I'm not talking about you!)  Relationships pose misunderstandings or differences to work through.  Dogs get ticks.  Finances have to be treated carefully.  Loved ones encounter health and other challenging issues.  I experience sadness, frustration, anger, resentment, loss, grief, hurt, stress, etc.  It's just that I remain - at all times - thankful for the good in my life, even in the face of whatever the issue of the day is.  And I make a conscious effort - although I have to remind myself some days - to Choose the Better Life, take the higher road, don't sweat the small stuff, and all the other cliches that have nuggets of wisdom in them.

So, I'm not a Pollyanna.  It's just that I've experienced awful stuff - like so many of you - so I don't let the regular crapola of life weigh me down.  I'm grounded in myself, centered in Spirit, at peace and comfortable in my own skin.  When things go awry, I remind myself to hold steady on that even keel and not get caught in the swirl.

This Choosing the Better Life blog is about all of that for me, conveniently packaged in an island setting.  I'm not here to tell anyone else how to do it - only you can figure that out.  It's also not to promote island living for everyone!  Plenty of people would not enjoy days without electricity or water, a complete absence of shopping and big box store convenience, or the small town everyone-knows-everything communal living.  For me, however, it is bliss (well, most days).

While I was working up this blog post, I "happened" to come across another blog along those lines.  Written in a more cavalier tone than is my personal style, the blog post by Jonesy entertained me immensely and captured many of my thoughts about it all.  Check out "Hey Everyone!  Come see how great my life is!  How NOT to be a Douche Bag Blogger"

Also during this time, I came across a lovely blog post by Jodi Chapman of Soul Speak about how we define the "story" of our lives - and how it influences how we feel about it.  (By the way, one of the best benefits of having started a blog is that I've "met" so many wonderful, interesting, clever, like-minded bloggers!)  On her blog, and as she'd love for any of you to do, I shared the "old" story of my life and contrasted it to my "new" story:

OLD: I’m tired. I’m overworked. I’m stressed. I don’t have time for friends and fun. I live too far from family. I hate winter. I’m sick – again. I’ve had nothing but heartache in relationships. I’m reeling from emotional trauma. I let others determine how I feel. I’m lonely. My beloved dog is the brightest spot in my day. I’m Type A to the max. Life doesn’t feel as fulfilling as it should. I feel like I’m just marking time.

NEW: Endless sunshine and water views buoy my spirit daily. I enjoy seeing my family more often. I love having time to be happily domestic at home and social with many friends. Deep, steady, solid love fills my heart. I am healthy and rested. I’m content within myself. I’m still highly organized and detail-oriented, but I can go with the flow, too. I take each day as it comes and am open to how the future will unfold. I am thankful for the abundance of good and Grace in my life. I still love my dog but we’re no longer co-dependent. :)

I believe it is an internal mental/emotional/spiritual shift that matters as much as, if not more than, any external factors in determining how we feel about the lives we are living.  So, the next time you read one of my life-is-great blog posts, please pause to notice where maybe life isn't totally great but I'm choosing to focus on the good and appreciate that.  And then feel free to continue rolling your eyes at me!  Cheers to your new story for your own life and to Choosing The Better Life for yourself in small ways every day!

But What Do You DO All Day?

People often express their curiosity about island living and ask me, “But what do you DO all day?”  (In fact, this is the question I get asked the most, after “How did you end up on an island?” and “Do you work?”)  I understand why the question comes to mind.  For the askers, their island experiences have either been the stuff of daydreams or vacations:  sleeping in, reading all day, going to the beach for hours, taking naps.  Delightful as that is, it does not seem like real life to them.

And, in fact, it’s not.  I joke with friends and family about being “island busy.”  Most days, I am on the go from 6:30am until the evening.  I do enjoy playtime on weekends:  going out on the boat, reading a book, taking Angel for a swim, snorkeling.  But weekdays are as busy as always.  Granted, it’s not the stress of my prior office life, but it is by no means slow or dull.  Also, things just TAKE longer on the island!  Certainly laundry is a slower process without a supersize washer and with no dryer other than Mother Nature.  Going to the store takes a while, too.  Thankfully, it’s not because of long drives and bad traffic and crowded stores.  Rather, it’s because I stop the golf cart as I drive along to talk to friends and neighbors passing by, then chat with the store owners and any other shoppers – all of them either friends and neighbors or friendly visitors.

So what do I do all day that keeps me island busy?  I run the household for myself, my beau and dog Angel.  I cook 2-3 meals almost every day.  I hand-wash dishes after every meal.  I clean house.  I wash, hang and fold clothes.  I walk and bathe dogs and check for ticks.  I blog.  I use email and social media to stay connected with friends and family and Better Lifers.  I help my beau with the office end of his business.  I am stepping into the world of freelance writing and spend time on that. I pay my bills and handle finances online.  I work on home improvement projects, large and small.  I fill the golf cart with gas.  I deal with the usual hassles of health insurance, taxes, doctors, etc. 

Want an example of A Day In The Island Life of Dawn?  Here’s how my day went yesterday:

6:15am – Beau had already let the dog out as I slowly awake.  No alarm, just daylight and the sounds of Beau and Angel moving about.  I get up, make the bed, throw on sweatable day clothes, tie my hair up and brush my teeth.  Heading into the living room, I join Angel in wishing Beau a great morning as he leaves for work.  Opening up a multitude of windows, I give thanks for the sunshine (but wish for more breeze).  Feed the dog, start coffee, put away dishes that dried overnight, sort laundry, check email, read the morning’s Daily Word over coffee.  Wish I could work on blog and blog-related social media, but just no time for that today.  Sorry Better Lifers!

7:30am – Initiate email business that will continue throughout the day:  travel logistics with multiple friends for upcoming trip to the States, travel logistics with other friends for their visit to the island, doctor’s offices for medical records and follow-up appointments, island airlines for various flight availability, suppliers for Beau’s business order, shipper for personal and Beau’s business deliveries, mother to say g’morning and about home improvements, planning emails for children’s summer program, etc.  Angel takes her first of many naps.

Zzzzzzzzz.

8:00am – Cook up egg sandwiches, pour more coffee and Beau stops back home for breakfast.  Talk with him about a few business items and play with the dog, then Angel and I wish him well as he's off again.  Start a load of laundry, thaw chicken for dinner, continue email business, sort mail, organize a pile of paperwork into folders, spray down with bug spray then go outside to hang laundry on the line to dry while Angel explores the yard.

9:00am – Hop in my golf cart and cruise to the airport to meet an arriving plane carrying a friend passing through to a boat for a week-long diving excursion.  Visit and help them get luggage to the dock.  Stop at a neighbor’s house to help her with a project.  Drive over to the ridge to drop something off at another neighbor’s home.

10:00am – Home to happy dog.  Notice that I haven’t walked Angel yet or done our daily tick check, but decide that has to wait.  Continue on with email errands.  Start in on phone errands:  Stateside doctor offices, Nassau property tax office, etc.

11:00am – Begin fixing lunch of grilled tuna melts, fresh veggies and dip, and sliced strawberries.  Oh, and, by the way, the tuna was freshly caught by my beau on Saturday, then turned into tuna salad on Sunday and finished off with grilled tuna melts on Monday.  Yum!

12:00pm – Start another load of laundry just as Beau arrives home for lunch.  Eat and talk a little business.  Angel, up to her usual antics, provides a laugh-filled break time for us both.

12:30pm – Clean up lunch, wash dishes, more email errands and follow-up from lunchtime business discussion.  Dice vegetables and grill chicken as prep for dinner (a chopped salad with grilled chicken).  Pull in dry laundry from line, hang up next round of wet laundry, fold and put away clean clothes.  Notice my guitar and think in passing that I really need to play that one of these days.

1:30pm – I really can’t emphasize how long it takes to follow up on all the email errands and logistics!  Doing more of that.  Another nap for Angel.  Update some planning documents for the summer youth program.  Look in dismay at my “to do” list, realizing that, despite the work, many items remain in process – grrrrr – and I can’t quite cross them off yet!

2:30pm – Start to draft this list of what I’m up to today for a blog post.  Notice that my sunny sky is darkening.  Hmmm.  Walk outside to check for squall lines, while Angel races around chasing lizards.  Feel laundry and pull in anything that is dry.  Can’t bring in damp clothes – I’m not running A/C yet and in this humidity clothes won’t dry inside!  Thank new Twitter followers and check Facebook.  Occurs to me that, now that my day is turning into a blog post, I should take pictures!

Darkening Sky

3:00pm – Still drafting blog, alternating with responding to incoming emails.  Now some friends are writing, so it’s fun to catch up with them in the midst of the logistics.  Chop up the cooled-off chicken for the salad.  Angel taking yet another nap.  Fold laundry.  Listen to thunder grumble in the distance.  Thinking of my family.  Read a funny note from Mom.  Email brother to say howdy.  Send silent well wishes to my traveling Dad.

Central work station, with grilled chicken waiting to be chopped.

3:30pm – Count down hours until my end-of-day shower – particularly hot and sweaty today, not even summer yet!  Print various emails and tickets and file everything away in travel/medical/Beau files.  Start grocery list – stores will restock on Wednesday when freight boat arrives.  Try to call Nassau again to follow up on property taxes, but phone line is down.  Sky is looking ominous.  Decide to squeeze in a dog walk before rain lets loose.

Stopping at a favorite beach area along the way.

4:30pm – Beau finished work and calls to say he’s hanging out with the guys cleaning their catch of the day if I want to come down.  I stay put to finish up:  emails with my mother about a Memorial Day project she's working on, wrap up supplier orders, email about sponsorship of a summer event, respond to a Facebook blog inquiry and send a document to a doctor’s office.

5:30pm – Finally, a shower!  Feed the dog, Beau stops by to shower and pick me up in the truck since it’s raining.  Off to a local bar for drinks with friends and to snag some lobster chowder to bring home to accompany our dinner salad that evening.

Day is done!  Another good day of island busy.

If Once You Have Slept On An Island

Oh, my long lost Better Lifers!  After my last post, I dashed to the States to take care of some matters that had sprung up (all is well).  Like most Stateside visits, it was a whirlwind week with LOTS of driving and City traffic that I happily forget about most other days.  Like other visits, it also had its upsides, most notably a too-short visit with my visiting Uncle and Aunt, recently-moved-to-the-area grandparents, mom and brother.  And, of course, the gorgeous aerial views on the return flight home to the island.  It was also a week of staying largely offline, so I'm glad to be reconnected with you now.

Happily home, I've been unpacking, loading groceries, sorting through email, walking Angel and Milo, giving the dogs a bath, sorting trip laundry and otherwise getting caught up from my absence.  With not even 24 hours under my belt, I've already shared sunset wine with dear friends on their dock (well, the little that is left of it anyway since Hurricane Irene), gone to the Village to catch up with friends and had an impromptu dinner out of sheep tongue souse that a local shop had cooked up.  (Yes, that's right, I actually eat sheep tongue souse!  So long as I don't think about what I'm eating, it's delicious!)  There's plenty more to do next week, but, for now, I'm relishing every moment of being home on the island.

My mother recently emailed me a copy of a poem she had seen posted on my refrigerator on the island.  That poem was left by a visiting friend, painted in a lovely script alongside her own beautiful watercolor painting she had done while on the island.  The poem, written almost a hundred years ago from an island situated far more north, conveys a timeless sentiment of island lovers:

If Once You Have Slept On An Island

If once you have slept on an island
You'll never be quite the same;
You may look as you looked the day before
And go by the same old name,

You may bustle about in street and shop
You may sit at home and sew,
But you'll see blue water and wheeling gulls
Wherever your feet may go.

You may chat with the neighbors of this and that
And close to your fire keep,
But you'll hear ship whistle and lighthouse bell
And tides beat through your sleep.

Oh! you won't know why and you can't say how
Such a change upon you came,
But once you have slept on an island,
You'll never be quite the same.
        --- Rachel Field

Have a wonderful weekend!

Things I Could Do All Day Long

This blog post was prompted by two things I was doing the other day when I happened to think about each of them, “I could do this all day long and never tire of it.”  So I set pen to paper (err, fingers to keyboard) and started to write about it.  What were those two things that were so special as to inspire a blog post?  Well, let me set the scene for you . . . 

It was an early evening on the island.  The sun was performing a beautiful slow dance toward the horizon, and the sea sparkled her farewell to the day.  My beau had departed a few hours earlier – off with “the guys” to an island 40 miles away to hunt goats to supply food for a friend’s upcoming wedding feast.  (And, by the way, I’m pretty sure I’ve never described that scenario ever before in my life!)  I was blissed out, having the house to myself.  I mean, I looooove spending time with my beau, and I miss him when he is away.  But I was glad he had the chance to engage in one of his favorite activities (hunting for food, not sport).  Plus, a guys’ hunting weekend that entails guns and game and sleeping with the guys on a boat on a deserted island engenders far more favor with me than, say, a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas or New Orleans.

So there I was, sprawled out on the couch with my laptop, Angel snoring on the floor beside me.  I’d been surfing the internet for hours, Tweeting more than usual, researching various blogging how-to, reading other blogs and generally feeling inspired to write – albeit in a prone-on-the-pillows, in-my-mind-only kind of way.  It was at that point that my battery indicator went off.  Time to plug in and recharge the laptop.

I walked to the bar at the kitchen counter – my usual writing spot – and plugged in.  Angel, awakened by my movements, was prancing around the kitchen to remind me that it was 6:00 p.m. – her DINNER TIME!  As I do almost anytime I cook or clean or putter in the kitchen, I pressed play on my ipod.  The speakers started to blast ABBA’s Gold album, which I’d already listened to a couple of times earlier in the day.  I sang along anyway, thinking “I could listen to ABBA all day long.”  (FINALLY, I’m getting to the point here.  I’m apparently extra chatty with my beau gone, too!)

After feeding Angel (and my beau’s potcake, Milo, who was stretched out on the front porch), I realized I should probably eat, too.  

Milo is having a leisurely evening, too.

Although I enjoy cooking for my beau or guests or family, I don’t usually enjoy it just for myself, and I was relishing my “night off” anyway.  So I grabbed an avocado and a lime from the refrigerator and quickly turned it into guacamole.  Yummmm.  

Back when I was a working stiff, my evening meal after arriving home late was very frequently just a bowl of hastily-made guacamole, bag of restaurant-style tortilla chips and a glass of white wine – all consumed in my big, fluffy bathrobe on the couch in front of recorded episodes of West Wing, Modern Family, Glee, True Blood, Mad Men, Rachel Ray, Ellen or Oprah.  (By the way, I don’t have a DVR on the island, and I don’t get network channels or HBO, so my tv-viewing these days is limited to occasional news or weather, and tv movies with my beau.  I never watch regular programming, and I don’t miss it one bit!  Go figure.)

Oops, I devoured the bowl of guacamole before I thought to take its picture!

At some point during the ravishing of the guacamole, I thought, “I could eat guacamole all day long.”  (Ahhh, finally back on point again.)

I started to wonder what else I could do all day long without getting tired of it.  Here’s what I came up with:

• Listen to ABBA’s Gold album (or Carrie Underwood, Jimmy Buffett, The Eagles, Jim Brickman, Jackson 5, Rascal Flatts, the Mamas & the Papas, Kelly Clarkson, Bob Marley, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Zac Brown Band, Dixie Chicks and certain other go-to’s).

• Eat freshly made guacamole (or brownies, fettucine alfredo, gnocchi in pesto sauce, fresh Bahamian lobster, macaroni –n-cheese, cornbread, a good cheeseburger, strawberries, quesadillas, conch fritters or any kind of cheese). 

• Enjoy the playful antics or sweet snuggling of beloved dog, Angel.

• Read a good book.

• Simply look at my beau - sappy, but true.

• Gaze at the sea, or be on or in or near the water in almost any fashion.

• Hang freshly washed clothes on the line to dry (so long as no mosquitoes are around).

• Subject myself to a foot rub or massage.

• Talk to a best girlfriend.

• Sing.

• Dance (well, until my body gave up anyway).

• Write.  I might have to mix up WHAT I was writing over the course of an entire day (e.g., blog posts, professional writing, journal, poetry, song lyrics, etc.), but I could write all day and not get tired of it.

• Receive sincere compliments or a genuine hug.  (Okay, neither of those could go on all day without it getting weird, but you know what I mean.)

• Smile. 

Much to smile about!

What things could YOU do all day long?  (PG-rated, of course!)

Post-Script re Goats.  The hunting trip was a happy success.  My beau got six goats.  He prides himself on clean shots to the head, which I also like because it kills them instantly, without needless suffering.  The other guys got a few, too.  They cleaned them all well and put them on ice - the makings of souse, stew, grill and other wedding entrees, along with plenty of fresh fish and conch!