It Began Like a Story…………

I look through the large window immediately in front of my dining table adorned with a view of the distant mountain tops and a volcano covered lightly by white cloud’s formations.

It is the rainy season, the pavement on the street and the green grass still damp from the night’s rain.

Already the two tiny squirrels that live in one of the large trees in the backyard are out, busy searching for food.

These little creatures delight us with their appearance and are missed when the change in season takes them elsewhere.

We look forward to the sunshine filled mornings, as we know the sun’s lifting ability in contrast with the days when we awake to the sounds of heavy rain and gray skies.

Early morning offering brings me back to the covers in search of the pouch filled with the aromatic coffee beans that day after day becomes the focus of the moment.

Each morning begins this way, and the slow start is a wonderful opportunity to collect my thoughts and contemplate where to start my chores.

The quiet satisfaction of not having to rush out to work the office job, but instead; to realize how much more I may accomplish.

Guatemala Land of Volcanoes, Lakes, and Lush Green Flora

I was born among the high mountains of Guatemala during a time of civil war when transportation was basic and telecommunication the only means of messaging others, and that, only during times of need.

Reading and loving reading books was our open door to imagination and dreams. As a child, finding games to play with my siblings was the weekly entertainment.

The task of study and homework all happened following printed textbooks.

Recently life brought me back home again, the home country where my parents buried my umbilical cord years ago.

Where growing older meant a nostalgic longing to return, after an absence of a bit more than four decades.

On Different Chapters ………..

My Bahamaland Piece of Heaven

A lifetime has passed since I a young woman eager to discover other worlds would leave full of energy and excitement.

Somehow knowing that fun filled days waited where I was going, and so it was how I began a new life in the beautiful seashores of The Bahamas.

Those were the days of wine and roses, candlelight dinners at Graycliff’s overlooking the tropical scenery, walking on the white sandy beaches along the strip lined up with several hotels, the Emerald Beach, the Nassau Beach, and the Balmoral enjoying the balmy breezes of the evenings in winter.

Dressing up for Government House Christmas concerts or walking along Bay Street for shopping and dining.

When traveling to the out islands on Bahamasair to join in the celebrations of Regattas and Junkanoo and music festivals was the fun thing to do.

Gathering around in the local Inns and restaurants having conversations and enjoying delightful native dishes, sharing moments with friends and acquaintances joining in from the north and other islands. Canadian snowbirds who came to warm their wings even if for short visits.

How It Was

The islands of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas in the mid-seventies still resembled an interesting English flair blended with a touch of a new culture.

A new culture that hinted a desire to be born in need of its own new identity, culture, a new pride, a new nation in the making.

I had arrived from the high mountains to the seashores looking around with a set of new eyes and the mindset of a young woman when the new nation soon became a place I called home.

All the special moments which in time became memories began to grow into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years.

And as the waves that came and went, and the sea gulls that gathered around the ports, the sights and sounds of my new home became a familiar place I find myself at times, missing and remembering when I am not there.

The heart that grows fonder when the body is absent, is the same heart that becomes divided no longer belonging just to one place.

This is what happens to us coming from different worlds formed from different lifetimes.

Like the tiny squirrels actively looking for food we move forward in our life’s journey, coming around full circle filled with memories.

Each morning should start anew for living and reaching our goals. Allowing the nighttime to become the hours to rest and recover.

I still look for those special memories of a time gone by and holding on to them helps me keep the right perspective in the present time when the days are shorter, and the nights are long because we live in a world of constant change.

Priscilla Hudson

(a Bahamas Real Estate Broker and Affiliate Marketer)