New Class +Rest in the Blue-Green Waters

It’s not like me to enjoy doing nothing. As far back as I can remember, my brain being bored operates like a Border Collie without a job to do, and without a job to do, a bored Border Collie will latch onto a slightly obsessive task such as chewing the deck off the side of a house.

Goddess Statues at the Sacred Point, Atlantis (detail)

Nonetheless, I managed to spend the week of my birthday in The Bahamas being perfectly happy to do uncharacteristically little. Everyone made certain the most difficult decision we made all day was deciding where to have dinner.

It was glorious!!!

One particular highlight was a 1/2 day snorkeling trip on a catamaran. Upon arriving at a beautiful, undeveloped beach near a reef, I discovered that after 25 years, snorkeling is not like riding a bicycle. The wrong mask type and less buoyant water literally had me panicking at being in over my head.

With Captain, My Captain aboard the Flying Cloud

But the captain of the boat, forever more known as “Captain, my Captain,” wasn’t going to let the birthday girl be disappointed. He very gently took me by the hand and guided me out to the reef, all the way around it, and all the way back. I saw fish and corals live in brilliant technicolor that I had only ever seen before on video.

Reentry to home and work has been…shall we just say chaotic, the polar opposite of enjoying doing nothing. Through it all, I think of the blue-green waters and occasionally text my friend Kelley and ask her to save me a lounge chair at the pool, and that I’ll be there after breakfast. That she is in Santa Rosa, CA, and I’m in Atlanta, GA is irrelevant. Somewhere in a parallel universe we’re all splashing around talking about where to go for dinner.