North Pointing stars

Most Sundays we try to get out and see the island, a new beach, even a beloved familiar one, different parishes, cane fields, anything to get out as a family and create new memories for ourselves and the girls.  This weekend after visiting the beach near our home, we decided to travel up to North Point in St. Lucy again.  We have gone up there a number of times and have never visited the Animal Flower Cave, one of Barbados's oldest treasures and a destination with stunning views where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean.  Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the cave again this time either.  But we did catch up with a friend and her family--Sue, Bella, Mimi, and Manuel--who not only live up there, right at the Cave, but who own and run the place.

Living right at the edge of the site, Sue and Manuel have a sprawling home with a lovely play area for the girls with swings, hammocks, and the sweetest treehouse.  Lily and I had just been talking about treehouses, so she was thrilled out of her mind to get to play in one so immediately.  Lily actually could have stayed there; she was so smitten with Bella and Mimi and all their dress up costumes.  There was a menagerie of animals.  Dogs, cats, an iguana, two turtles, one of whom, Polly had been laying eggs about the property.  Mimi, Sue's littlest, found a tiny baby turtle wandering in the garden and they'd put it in a box with some squash to eat.  Virginie also was happy to experience something new and had the dogs licking her hands and face as she fed them dropped Cheese Sticks (Cheetos to my American friends).

Sue, an Englishwoman, is a bright star among the ex-pats.  She is lovely, open, and positive in the face of every possible scenario.  she knows everyone here or at least everyone knows her by her bright eyes and smile and keen sense of the world.  She has foregone the life that I miss, city life, for a life on the island with Manuel, a Bajan, and their girls.  Their life has magic and whimsy but is also real.  The huge packages offered ex-pats to come to the island and work are not available to them, though they work just as hard, if not harder ,which seems unfair as they are truly committed to the island and its prosperity.

At their home, Didier stretched out on a hammock with a cool, salty breeze blowing over him and I saw him close his eyes for just a second and relax the tension at the corners.  There are beautiful, shiny things here in Barbados.  For us, they are fleeting moments, rainbows, sunsets, more sunrises, and gorgeous flashes of blue sea.  They are the things we will remember fondly when we leave but only seem to glimpse while we are here.  For Sue and Manny and the girls, this is everyday.  It is always.  And the ease with which they navigate it gives me hope that I might one day find and relax into my true place, my spiritual home and just live.

(c) copyright 2010. Citymominthejungle