Words that have Sustained

During Advent I posted a series on fb of words that have sustained me this year...as the year comes to an end, I'm copying some of those posts here. Grateful for their companionship.

Bermuda Railway Trail

'I believe in God's very real and unshakeable love for me and for every person. The value that brings to our lives is what gives dignity to the paths we walk, whether the paths were of our choosing or not.'

- Amy Grant

Royal Navy Cemetery, Bermuda

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” - Rainer Maria Wilke

Bermuda, View from Boaz Island

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake. - Amen

The Book of Common Prayer

Gibbs lighthouse, Bermuda

You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. - C.S. Lewis

Upnor House, Boaz Island, Bermuda

Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking. - Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace.

You have permission to rest! You don't have to fix everything that's broken. You don't have to try to make everyone happy. It is time to rest. It is time to find refreshment for your body and soul. (not sure who said it) - with a little nod to my Malaysian roots...

You have traveled too fast over false ground;

Now your soul has come to take you back.

Take refuge in your senses, open up

To all the small miracles you rushed through.

Become inclined to watch the way of rain

When it falls slow and free.

Imitate the habit of twilight,

Taking time to open the well of color

That fostered the brightness of day.

Draw alongside the silence of stone

Until its calmness can claim you.

Be excessively gentle with yourself.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

Excerpt from, 'For One Who is Exhausted' found in his books: Benedictus (Europe) / To Bless the Space Between Us (US) Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

I posted this on fb a year ago and it has stayed with me ever since.

Eating/Grazing/Food observations - Updated

If you are familiar with Bermuda you know most of its food is shipped from the US (most grocery stores especially the fruit and veg produce section looks remarkably like any produce aisle in the US) which makes everything really expensive. Like $1.89 an apple expensive (not $1.89 a pound) or $10 for the liquid hazelnut coffee mate that my parents enjoy so much (sorry parents, guess I outed you there!) which can be found often for $3 in the US. So I'm trying to be thoughtful in how and what I buy. However should I run out of money and have to survive off of foraging the island, here's how I would survive. 

1. Fish. Yes, I love looking at them under water but if push came to shove...

2. The island is teeming with wild chickens. I asked my first airbnb hosts if any local residents ever snatch a chicken out of the tree where they roost at night. It was a definite no. Guess people are not going hungry here in Bermuda.

3. Fruit of the island - prickly pear, Bay Grape (sea grape or cocoplum in other parts of the world), Surinam Cherry, Natal plum, loquats -  and of course in season you can find bananas, mangos and oranges also that people have growing in their yards. And should you need some allspice, the trees are abundant everywhere as well!

Prickly Pear, Surinam Cherry, Sea/Bay Grape

Prickly Pear

Surinam Cherry

Surinam Cherries are new to me having a citrusy taste especially when less ripe (with hints of not fully ripe mango) and as they darken up becoming quite sweet. It's not really the season for them right now but they are popular at this time of year, looking like little pumpkins! More info on the Surinam Cherry here.

Sea/Bay Grape

My Housing - updated

For those that want to see and know a little bit more about my housing situation in Bermuda...I arrived here having only booked a month at my first ever airbnb which turned out to be a gem run by hosts Karen and Danny. It was actually one of the first airbnb's to get started on the island a few years ago. And it turned out to be such a beautiful restful space for my first six weeks on the island. From the moment I entered the front gate which is an old wagon wheel (more on that in a moment), pushing open the beautiful Bermudian Cedar exterior door, walking past the pool and up  some steps onto a terrace under a frangipani tree to my studio which had peaceful music playing as I entered, I knew I had been given a gift. Angel Mews as it's AirBnB link describes, definitely provided peace and tranquility. If you ever need a place to stay here in Bermuda, try to get this place. 

Typical Bermuda water catching roof

Sunrise...every day

I loved just watching out the windows every day and seeing the light and the greenery. And I loved hearing the little tiny frogs lull me to sleep every night and watching the lizards scamper about during the day. Horseshoe Bay, the closest of the south island beaches was only a 15-20 minute walk away.

Tiny frogs - this one was a rescue from the pool!

My friends the fish

One of my goals  in coming here was to swim a lot and snorkel a lot and spend as much time in the water and under the water as possible. One of the highlights of when I was here six years ago was swimming off the dock and seeing a HUGE 3 1/2-4 foot Hogfish swim right by me - and evidently they are territorial so he/she would swim that same route every day around the same time. He/she(?) was stunningly big and beautiful with stripes of purple and red. I was a little freaked out and amazed!

I recently saw a baby hogfish (only about 8 inches) dart away from me but yet to see a big guy. Other individual highlights include almost running into a surprisingly large invasive Lion fish, several trumpet fish, a very menacing barracuda that eyed me very watchfully - and loads of little fish that surround me - a couple times the water gets dark because the school is so big! But without doubt the highlight has been the many different kinds of parrot fish (Bermuda has nine species) which seem to dominate the waters in so many different colors and hues and sizes - and making it more complex some of these ubiquitous fish change color and design over the course of their lifetime and even more complex, many start as female and change to male later on in their life! I don't have an underwater camera but here are a couple photos taken from the internet of a few of my favorite parrot fish species and a  link with more fascinating details on these amazing fish.

Princess (or Stoplight?) Parrotfish

Blue Parrotfish

Rainbow Parrotfish

And my two favorite parrot fish experiences so far:

Having a school of two dozen 1-2 foot blue parrot fish swim right underneath you and all around is truly beautiful and calming. Their vivid blue isn't captured in this picture above - I only hope you can one day experience it. 

And without a doubt my #1 piscis highlight began to materialize the very first day I made it to the water's edge and looking down from the cliff I was standing on, I saw these large objects in the water and thought what am I looking at?! Turns out that  rainbow parrot fish grow quite big (think 3-4 feet) and being vegetarian (like all parrot fish) they come right to the edge of the water to graze on the greenery and algae growing on the rocks. Whether it is their size or what I don't know but these large ones consistently can be found around the edge of the coast nibbling away, sometimes by themselves, sometimes with what I imagine is their family. And let me tell you,  every time I am swimming and come around a corner and one of these gentle giants is right there, it takes my breath away. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to swim with a a whale shark - these are enough! 

It's interesting that they are called rainbow parrot fish because certainly by the time they are this big they are mainly brown with some swatches of bright moss green. I do have photos of these guys taken from above them while they are nibbling. Sometimes it feels like you can reach down and just pat them on their fin!

And now you know! Everyone should have the opportunity to swim with these gentle giants and their smaller more colorful cousins!

Duncan

Bermuda...for a little longer

Two weeks ago today I landed in/on one of the most densely populated countries (technically a British Overseas Territory) in the world (it's true, look it up!), one of the more expensive places to live in the world (top 5 per capita GDP, a place with no running streams or fresh water other than what falls out of the sky or hidden in deep aquifers, 4 kinds of mosquitos, 10 kinds of cockroaches - sounds like bliss right? Well, if that's the worst that can be said about Bermuda, bring it on!

Friends have asked why Bermuda? (other than the selling points already mentioned above!) The more typical answers could all be said - beautiful pink sand beaches, snorkeling, sub tropical island, (equals no freezing cold winters, though it cools off to about 60 in December and January) take a look at the following photos and tell me why not??

Horseshoe Bay

Horseshoe Bay

A Seattle/Northwest Summer

I spent my summer in Seattle taking advantage of many things Northwest that I have missed over the last eleven years since moving to the East Coast – Puget Sound waters, berries and more berries, followed by by plums and pears and apples, hikes in the woods, beautiful West Seattle gardens and flowers, spending time with my family, adventures with my parents, cooking for my parents (sometimes cooking and adventures were the same thing!) a week spent house and animal sitting at my sister’s and helping 10 pups enter the world three hours after they left on a week long get away! (but that deserves it's own post!)

I've never been so grateful to be near the water and almost daily would find myself down at the water's edge in West Seattle, usually at Lowman Beach or at Lincoln Park. I hope you enjoy these Seattle/Northwest photos.

Lowman Beach

View from Lowman Beach

View from Lowman Beach

View from Lowman Beach

Birch Bay or somewhere close by. All the little dots in the water are herons. I had never seen so many in one spot.

Barclay Lake