It lived up to the hype!

"Understandably happy to be specific
When I'm snorkeled and finned
In the blue Pacific.
I admire the damsel fish
Feel terrific
As I float on the face
Of the blue Pacific."

Lyrics by from the song Blue Pacific by Michael Franks.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/blue-pacific-video-michael-franks.html

Alone and free, I felt completely at peace and at home, one with my liquid environs. Floating motionless, bathed in turquoise tranquility, not quite an intruder, uninvited yet included, I was nonetheless, for a moment or two, an aquatic participant in an choreographed display of color and movement and unity.  I saw true community, each fish, differing in size, hue and species moving in unison with the pulse and rhythm of the waves and current. Never did they seem worried by the change in direction or bubbles or jostling.  They belonged.  And I wish I did.

I love snorkeling!

There is something unearthly about it yet the sense of effortless weightlessness is very appealing to me.  I can't explain it. I feel completely at home in the surge of the ocean. All I could hear in my inner iPod was the song Blue Pacific by Michael Franks. Round and round it went.

Years ago, I had a lump under my ear.  My mother took me to the Cleveland Clinic and was told by the doctor that I should have been a fish and in my evolutionary process that lump was a malfunctioned gill.  My mother was fit to be tied! (It turned out to be a benign tumor.)  But maybe the doctor was onto something. Maybe he was not as crazy as we thought at the time.

Did I say that I love snorkeling?

Our just completed eastern Caribbean cruise which helped Deborah and myself celebrate our 20th year of marriage was an unqualified success. The ship was great, the food was plentiful and delicious, the cabin stewards friendly and welcoming, the islands beautiful and called to us. We went to the Dominican Republic, St. Thomas and Tortola in the Virgin Islands and Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas.  I was so amazed that many of the pictures I took looked liked shots in a travel magazine!  It was truly beautiful and lived up to what I had heard and seen on the Travel Channel.  One thing I truly believe is that I could live there year-round.  All I need is a chance to prove that I am up to the task!

While I would love to draw some pithy spiritual insight, and I could, I won't.  I'll just leave you with one picture...and they say it speaks a thousand words.

Wishing I was still Snorkeled and Finned!

Traveler