The Healthy Cookie

Here I am in St. Lucia and every itty little bit of me is smiling- from my feet that got to spend the day in the sand and swimming through the ocean to my hair that is being let free to curl and frizz as it wishes. Everywhere I look I see sunshine and rainbows. I didn’t realize how long I had let it go without seeing either.

I arrived late Friday afternoon and was met at the airport and transported the hour and a half from the bottom tip of the island where the airport is to the tip top northern point where the resort is.

From the moment that hot tropical air hit my face when the airplane door opened, I couldn’t stop smiling. As we drove along the main road my eyes were smiling. They were happy to be seeing so much green lushness. We drove through miles of banana plantations and past little roadside bars and BBQ stops, by women frying plantain and selling grapefruits.

Upon arrival at the Oasis Spa at LeSport, I was warmly welcomed by the manager who took me to my little apartment. I wish I could say where that is but it seems my home has no address. Every time I ask someone I get a different answer. I know that I am at the top of a hill. I know there is a ‘basketball court’ across the way (more like a cracked rectangle of concrete and a broken basket) and a colourful house on the corner- these at least are the landmarks that have been assigned to my location.

As I write this, I am sitting on the front porch to my flat and it is really loud. The dogs barking, the crickets cricketing, the assortment of frogs, the goats, a few mooing cows and an occasional ‘nay’ of a horse…those are the sounds of my neighbourhood. Not quite the noise of the traffic, streetcars, and rattling shopping carts of Parkdale. There is a calmness to all this noise and my ears are smiling. I asked my neigbour Simon, who grew up on the island, about what was making the sound that I can only describe as that of a lamb being suffocated. He told me he couldn’t here a thing.

I went to the resort today to meet some of the people I will be working with. Everyone I have met has been so incredibly kind to me- whether it be my landlord giving me a ride to the resort this morning and leaving mangos and starfruit on my patio table when I returned home, my neighbor Simon offering to show me some of the islan

d’s best beaches or take me hiking in the Pitons next weekend, Tracey, the spa training manager taking me to get my mobile sorted and get groceries or Terry, the guy who drove me from the airport yesterday offering to take me out for a drink… wait that might be something a little different. Either way- everyone has been amazingly kind and generous and it makes me smile from the inside out. Like sunshine and rainbows.

I spent the afternoon lying by the beach and swimming in the ocean. My skin is loving the sunshine and Vitamin D is oozing through me. This evening, I watched the sunset- the first of what I am sure will be many.

I have often written in this blog about sunshine and rainbows. I mentioned that though life cannot always be sunshine and rainbows, it never hurts for us t

o try. I have said that we must take the bad with the good- or rather experience a little bad sometimes so that we can better appreciate the good. Perhaps though we really just need to try and stop labeling something as ‘bad’ or ‘good’ and just let it be.

I am an optimistic person. I do my best to give situations and people the benefit of the doubt. My ex-boyfriend used to tell me that life isn’t always going to be sunshine and rainbows and that I am naïve to think it might be. I know it can’t always be, and nothing will ever be perfect, but I think, a lot of the time, it is really just a matter of choice. A matter of how we wish to view things, or how we wish to label things as ‘bad’ or ‘good’.

I could be grossed out and distraught over my kitchen drawers being filled with mouse poop but instead I just cleaned them out and washed the cutlery. I could dwell on the 3 inch cockroach that greeted me during my middle of the night bathroom stop or I could take a picture to show my friends… those things are just part of the experience. I can’t help but feel that all of the travelling I have done has prepared me in all the right ways for this. In fact, I am now realizing how many experiences in my life have helped lead me to right where I am. Though I could look back and label those experiences as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as I certainly did while experiencing them, in the end, it seems, they were all just so. No matter now as they helped get me here and for each and every person, experience,

conversation, ambition, idea or insane amount of work that contributed to my being here- I am absolutely grateful.

When I woke up this morning, I decided that despite the dark rain clouds, I wanted to take a walk and get to know my area a little better. As I was walking, it started to rain- the kind of steamy torrential rain that only happens in tropical climates. As the rain let up and the sun broke through- I turned a corner and looked out over the valley towards the ocean down below. Out in front of me- spanning the valley was the most stunningly complete and glowing rainbow. Wonderfully timed- I wished I had my camera but realized that perhaps this rainbow, that lasted no more than five minutes, was meant just for me. It was the most perfect great big “welcome to St. Lucia” banner painted across the sky. Sunshine and rainbows.