RANDOM THOUGHTS.....

 

 A series of short stories.....

Dorothy And Friends Traveling The Yellow Brick Road

.....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes



I've often wondered why we have a certain 'pull' towards particular persons, places and things over others.....


Is it simply about how (good/happy) another person makes you feel about yourself?  That's not always true.  Many people are thrown into painful and abusive relationships they find difficult, if not impossible, to break away from.  So, circumstances play a major role in the paths that we walk down and, eventually, connect us with people who will become our teachers, lovers, acquaintances, friends, mentors and, possibly, enemies.  Like Dorothy, the yellow brick road that winds through corn fields and dense, shadowy forests into a sunny field of poppies and beyond......is not always a simple road to navigate.  And, the people we meet along the way, friend or foe, are there to guide and strengthen our character as we move forward on this crazy journey called life!

I understand that individuals are placed along our path to interact with us for very specific reasons.  If we believe in ourselves, it is possible to see that each person we meet teaches us a 'life' lesson and, by filtering and categorizing each one, then we can learn to either approve and work with this lesson or use its negativity to guide us to be stronger and more understanding of the world and those around us.  I believe this is called 'character building'......utilizing the circumstances surrounding our life to make it the best it can be.

Ambitiously, we assume that our family will wrap us within its loving arms, guide and protect us, through thick and thin as we shuffle along our individual path.  However, will a best friend or a lover do the same?  We, as humans, want to believe so but, all too often, this is not the case.  A good friend of mine with three young children was going through a nasty divorce, deteriorating financial circumstances and, eventually, an affair 'rooted in loneliness' with a married man.  The divorce was justified, the finances unfortunate and, the affair, brutal on many levels.  As a friend, I could never justify her affair and initially served only to comfort her guilty feelings about it.  Introducing her lover to her children was a cruel scenario as it gave these beautiful kids false hope regarding a possible future with a man who dealt in untruths on a daily basis.

The charm and comfort of the affair wore-off after one very long year when my friend finally learned to believe in the power of 'self' as the internal force that guides us along the shadowy forest path.  As she began to fully comprehend this and decided to place herself and her children on a higher level of importance, her life changed for the better, the affair ended and infinite possibilities opened-up before her.  I assert that the only way to arrive at a 'happy medium' is to experience both extremes, the highs and the lows, ups and downs of a situation and allow your positive and negative observations to be your guide.  By allowing this man to complicate further her already complicated life, my friend was taken to the depths of despair and from there she buoyantly resurfaced with an opened heart that allowed her to love herself again.  I understand that by experiencing the dark path side-by-side with this man, it guided her to the bright path she is on today.  Things do happen for a reason, even if we often stumble in the dark at the beginning of our journey.



Do certain places keep calling us back, tugging at our heartstrings and having us begging for more, more, more?

Alamanda Resort at St. Martin

Since we had honeymooned in Aruba, vacationed each summer on historic Mackinac Island which lies just to the east of St. Ignace in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and, walked for miles along the Sanibel Island shoreline off the Gulf of Mexico in Florida collecting seashells with our daughters for over twenty-six summers......I can safely say that we are drawn to the rhythm of an island beat.  Like species of birds that migrate south to their particular nesting areas or the illuminating Monarch Butterfly that utilizes an internal magnetic compass to direct its flight toward the equator, this family always returned to the sea.....



Orient Beach on St. Martin

Several years ago I was deciding on which French yogurt to purchase for my evening snack while scanning the cooler of a small grocery store near our hotel, the Alamanda Resort, in St. Martin Island located in the northeast Caribbean.  Our home for the week was Orient Beach.....voted as being one of the world's most beautiful beaches!  As with its French counterpart, the Riviera, clothing on this beach is optional.

Encompassed by the most intense colors I have ever observed, taking photographs, walking the beach or shopping for souvenirs in Marigot (St. Martin's most populated city) at the market place by the port, was a profound experience! 


Marigot Market

 

I digress.....  I selected my yogurt as a lovely lady, close to our age, asked me if we were staying in the area.  At this point both of our husbands moved-in closer to join the conversation.  We replied that we were and discovered that they were staying at the Esmeralda Resort just north of us.  They hailed from Ohio and had been returning to Orient Beach for over ten years every September.  We told them that, sadly, the next day was our last full one on the island and we'd be flying home Saturday morning.  "Do both of you partake in what this beach has to offer?" She asked.  "I mean, do you enjoy sunbathing in the nude?  Because, if that is what you like, the four of us could meet on the beach tomorrow for the day!"

Oh, we tried so hard to not look surprised!  I don't think it worked, though.  They both picked-up on it right away, thank goodness!  I would have thought my distinct tan lines were a dead giveaway?  They were very gracious, however, and told us about several unique (clothing necessary) attractions on the island we'd not seen yet and then said their good-byes after wishing us a safe trip back to the States.  We had just been hit on and, in a weird and unusual way, it was strangely flattering!?  Two outwardly mature adults paid for their strawberry yogurt that balmy Caribbean night and proceeded to giggle, hand-in-hand, all the way back to their room.

A Monarch Butterfly sits on a tree trunk at the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary in the mountains of Mexico.
(Photo: AP/Marco Ugarte)

I leave you with a quote by Jody Marr in an article she had written for Liquid Salt Magazine entitled THE SEA WITHIN US:

"The human body has almost the same proportions of calcium, sodium and potassium as the ocean. It pulses in our veins.

We migrate to the sea with precision and purpose as soon as the cords to our childhood are cut. God has set our internal compass to lead us toward a salty body of water; like birds migrating south via some ancient, ancestral, homing instinct.

It’s a way of life. A need. A yearning. It hums in us everyday. We swim in the water like otters. It cloaks around us like the warm fluid of the womb."

 

"Passion is energy.  Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you."

 

Copyright © 2014 By Jacqueline E. Hughes
All rights reserved