For a long time I had wanted to return to live in Antigua
another one of the islands I grew up in as a young teenage girl. Been young and
impressionable the people always seemed so progressive and there always seemed
to me there was a party going on all the time. So when I got a phone call
asking me to come to come to evaluate a high profile sports bar I gave a
resounding yes I will. At the time I hadn’t even thought of my desires to live
and work in both America and the Caribbean. I just knew that an opportunity had
presented itself and even though I had not been a practicing restaurant
consultant for a while it occurred to me
that I could continue my holistic practice in New York and at the same time
honor my commitment as a restaurant consultant in Antigua. I had not even given my thyroid challenge any
consideration, but as I settled into my
job I decided to make the most I could out of been in Antigua and one of those
things that I wanted to accomplish was to shift my hypothyroidism to a normal
function. So I got to putting things in place to achieve my goal and so on this
journey I recognized that I first needed to find the perfect place to live.
My search took several months; and it was a definite
adventure. My home needed to be unique, visiting the nooks and crannies of
Antigua I didn’t have a specific look or place
in mind I only knew that when I saw it I would know it and so for three months,
whenever I got a lead ,my buddy and I would quickly go to check it out. One day
my friend called to say she is reading something in the paper that she thought
I would like, but it would be far away; to which I replied this is Antigua,
nothing is far away from anything, let’s go look at it, I said to her.
This place was difficult to find, Antigua is a small country;
but this is one of those places where you would get perfect direction and,
drive by or walk by several times and still pass it by. We called the gentleman
we were meeting to show us the house, and he guided us to the right turn on the dirt
road into the bushes; (and into the
bushes was exactly where we were) ; there wasn’t even a passable road. It was
so bad that you needed a four wheel drive just to get through the deep ditches
filled with the water from the recent rainfall that later I found out occurred
between 5 and 6 am every morning. I later though that an early morning rainfall
was a glorious way to wake up the world, water for the plants, keeping the vegetation green and
lush, softening the soil so the crabs can claw their way up to scamper about.
But anyway, back to
getting to and seeing the house that was evidently waiting for me. We passed
sour-sop trees, sugar apple trees, cassie (Acacia) with their thorns sticking
out just wanting to stick their needle into your skin; a deterrent from
travelling through this place for sure; but we were undeterred. We came to an
intersection in the road and made a right turn up a slippery hill, passed a
coal pit at the top of the hill, (Antiguans
produced their own coal by burning logs under a cover of dried green bush and
dirt) slowly and gently chugging along, all the way up. When we got to the top
of the hill, I caught my breath; this was this most magnificent scenery I had
ever seen. The Caribbean Sea was flowing gently between to islands rolling quietly
to the secluded shores of this magnificent hideaway in Seaton’s village.
We stopped because the view held us captive; we didn’t want
to move from that spot. We sat in absolute stillness with the windows open,
inhaling the ocean as the breeze whiffed by and feeling the cooling air float in
through the open car windows. We reluctantly and gently pulled ourselves away from
this mesmerizing scene and made a left turn, which brought us to two large
concrete pillars. We drove through and pulled up in the front of the house
where a tall rugged man waited patiently for us.
We introduced ourselves, and he opened a wire gate and took
us up a set of grey concrete stairs to the yellow and white door of the house. It was a lovely house, open spaces, lots of
windows, tall ceilings, well furnished; but hidden behind a few large trees,
which also hid the beautiful view we had just spent minutes gawking at. I’m
sure my disappointment registered on my transparent face; we took a few minutes
to chat about the particulars of the property, said our thank you. As we started
down the stairs about to leave the premises, he said, “I have a smaller house, but
it is right on the water” he said. My heart lit up, my mouth dropped open and I
said I’ll take it. I had not seen the
house but I had seen the waters, and even if it was a little shack I would have
had the same reaction. I knew it wasn’t about the house, for me it was about
the ocean. It was about my body beginning to heal itself by absorbing the
minerals from the deeply turquoise Caribbean Sea each and every day.
With him leading the way, we walked down two very long sets
of stairs, through the bushes, passing papaya trees laden with small green and
yellow fruits, one large lemon tree filled with green citrus fruits giving off
an essence which was a combination of oranges and grapefruit, sour-sop trees and
a mongoose and ground lizards and tree lizards scampering away. As we came to
the top of the second set of stairs, the ocean and its islands spread out
largely in front of us. My heart leapt, GLORIOUSLY;
as we continued on our way down to my house (I had taken ownership of it in my
heart, my mind, my body and my soul). There, close up the waters gently rolling
in pass the jetty between the manchineel trees onto the shore just less than a
hundred feet away from my house; which as it turned out was actually the
perfect home for me.
Join me next time to find out which tropical fruits and vegetables, addressed my hypothyroidism.
