We’ve been home for a few weeks now but the warm tropical breezes of St. Thomas still linger in my memory. If I close my eyes I can almost imagine floating on my back in the ebb and flow of the ocean waves, staring up at the sapphire blue sky, tasting salt water on my lips. Hopefully these memories will stay vivid until Spring.
Travel teaches us more than a classroom ever could. Traveling forces you right out of your comfort zone and makes you think on your feet, if you're not feeling a little of that then you're not doing it right. If you open yourself up to the unknown, it can even make you see the world differently, be more empathetic towards others and infinitely more grateful for what you have.
We've learned a lot over the past four years of visiting these islands. Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to return. The past couple of years we've treated our friend Lecia to dinner the night before we leave as a thank you for the hospitality she's shown us.
It’s become a ritual that just before we leave for the airport to come back home to Minnesota we take a picture with our friend (and Airbnb host) Lecia. I’m always amazed at the differences in how we look from when we get there to when we leave 7-10 days later. We always look healthier and way more relaxed than when we arrived.
As we’re making our way through airport customs/security and up the stairs to the plane I always replay the experiences we’ve had and the people we met in my head and wonder how our time in the islands could have passed so quickly.
When I’m settled in my cramped seat my thoughts immediately turn to the future and our life back home...family, friends, and our dog Amstel. Then I start to think about the grind, my goals for the year ahead.
I'm very grateful for the life I live. It's taken a lot of time and work (and a fair amount of mistakes) to get here yet I have so much further to go. Every year, at some point in our trip, my wife and I always say to one another, I wonder what will happen in these next twelve months?
I have to admit, part of the fun of it all for me is the mystery of it all, the not knowing. All we can do is work hard and plot our course but the rest is up to luck and the Universe.
Hopefully the 2020 version of me will stand on this beautiful patio, overlooking the ocean, feeling proud of the last twelve month's accomplishments and have a full list of tasks on my to-do list for the next year. I couldn't be more excited to find out.
This year I discovered my favorite radio station on the island, AM 1340 WSTA, has a streaming app so I'll be able to "visit" St. Thomas whenever I need to, I just have to launch the app and listen.
As for now, I have a lot of making up to do with this little guy...
Click below for previous posts about our Caribbean adventure:
Thanks for joining me on this trip and...Be Breezy,
Eric
*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
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