Two weeks of living, part one

Well, time with my family has come and gone as has Holy Week and the celebration of the Resurrection. As I reflect on those two weeks, I am becoming more fully aware of that porous Spirit that I longed to touch so many weeks ago when I first came and sat by the "rock" of this island people.

The week with my family here provided me with 2 very different experiences. The first was that of being a "tourist" and all that is involved with the living of moments with that persona. It is an identity that I am familiar with, having traveled extensively through the Caribbean as one who loved the relaxation by and swimming in the ocean and as a mother who thoroughly enjoyed not having to cook and clean while our family enjoyed various resort holidays! But there is a difference here in Barbados where tourism and the interface with tourists is less fraught with tension. I think that the continuing pressure to maintain public access to all the beaches shapes the interface with tourists in a way that is different from my experiences on some other islands where resorts control access to the beaches creating a definitive us/them situation. That situation is often then exasperated by the divergence of other local resources away from the people and their struggling poverty to the tourists and their needs. My observations are of course sweeping but do reflect the attitude of many people on this Island as I have had a chance to dialogue with them about these issues. Having said all that, it was indeed soothing for the soul to rest on the beach in good company and swim in the ocean.

One day, my daughter, sister and I had the chance to discover remote places of the Island with Basil who was generous enough to spend many hours letting us "touch" his land. The east coast and north coast are truly spectacular and so very different from what my eye has seen on the other two shorelines. Having a developing photographer along (my daughter) I am pleased to share some of these discoveries of this land through her eyes. The east coast begins to take on a ruggedness as one travels northward. This Atlantic coastline is full of energy as one sees the effects of the pounding of the surf on the coral rock. But as we drove further and further north, I was unprepared for the changes to the landscape where the combination of winds and currents have carved a majestic and barren landscape with sometimes the most strange shaping of the coral rock.

With rock exposed and trees bending to the wind, one can only image the ruggedness of the people that would have lived on the meager sustenance of this land. Yet there was ample evidence that life can meet the challenges of nature and co-exist in spectacular ways. This was the land that touched Basil's spirit and we were all honoured to have been able to enter the sacredness of this place. It was as if the rock itself had a voice and an energy and a vision for itself as part of all creation. Three days later I found myself preaching on Palm Sunday about how God always has a witness to the holiness that is right before our eyes - if its not humanity that can see the holiness, then the stones will give voice to it. It was the story of the humble ride of Jesus on the back of a donkey with dangling feet inches above the very stones on the road to Jerusalem.

We'll continue the journey next time, God willing!