LIGHT A DARK VOYAGE

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Odd how I can be thrown from one end of the spectrum to the other but find congruencies. Like the last blog playing 'This Must Be the Place" by Talking Heads where the one lamp comes on. It wasn't until after I published it I noticed only one lamp on in a photo of an antique print I uploaded :l Or the sermon about the 'Good Shepard' when we got home that Sunday with my daughters dog and our pets? Or how my trip to Tampa had me road whooped and sobbing in a hyperventilated way only to board the ship that chased a storm out to sea causing everyone to comment on how it was one of the roughest waters they had sailed on only to end in light? (one woman sailed 27 times and this was top 3 of her 'queasiest' experiences!)

I slept the first day at sea and after the hard journey there after surgery with only 1.5 hr. of sleep in 36 hrs....nothing to eat my first night in Tampa...I needed it! A night and a day of it!! My schedule was off and had me up at 2 am the next night sitting on open deck on this huge ship chasing a storm, bobbing and swaying reminding me of when I would sail on a 36 ft. auxillary craft in the New Orleans regatta's in lake ponchartrain. We would all go sit on one side of the boat trying to throw our weight to the side up in the air to keep the thing from keeling over. The difference was it was in a lake with other sailboats close by!! A horrid rough start alone at night on rough seas in the dark on what seemed to be a Godless voyage. I wondered what I got myself into, regretted it, and yet my heart wasn't up for prayer since the surgery :( I thought if this is God's will to leave me abandoned like this...there was nothing I could do but hope Paros would be ok when I arrived home.

CC: Pardise Lobby

Funny how that morning everything did a 180. Sea was calm, storm gone off the news, everyone about, and a Luthern woman named Paula approached me and asked if I wanted her to pray for blessings in healing! I told my neighbor and congregation I'd find a prayer group since the boat had no chapel! And there she was; like a light out of nowhere that found me :} Right in the lobby in the center of the ship for God and all to see, we prayed together along between my 2 favorite crew members onboard from Guest Services and the lobby bar (Russian and Ukranian women). It was one of the most beautiful prayers I've heard to date and 2 days later...her husband and her exclaimed how the color had come back to my face :} I just regret I didn't see her again to give her my address or get her email :(((

Paradise Cafe & HD; GC

I claimed that healing and we enjoyed our excursions at the ports we stopped at. I may not have gotten to get into the sea but her prayer, the fresh sea air, clearing weather, fresh grilled fish, walks, shopping were all a part of my speedy recovery. Jim stocked up on hats and TShirts at his favorite island; Grand Cayman. I think he enjoyed it more than St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, virgin islands, Puerto Rico, Grenada....any of them! It was small and quaint, had a Harley and Hard Rock shop next door, Jimmy Buffets 3 blocks down, a beautiful jewelery store (where he tried to buy me the most beautiful clear deep blue ring and bacarat crystal), and awesome lunch spot on the sea with fish fresher than on the cruise ship! Paradise Cafe oddly enough. Same name as our ship :)

The cruise hooked us up with the best tour guides I've ever had...alone or through travel agencies. Everywhere we went we laughed with the group on buses, cabs, trolleys, ferries, and boat. Met a lot of people and exchanged emails. It really wasn't an impressive ship, the food was average to me, and a bit chaotic but certain crew members were exceptional in servicing us, the tour crews were very attentive and professional...especially helping me on and off transports (my spine was still bruised and in pain making it difficult to go up and down stairs not to mention the shattered arm with the plate in the other bone from surgery that week :( ). It definitely made up for the outdated ship, food, angry daughter who I hope was just stressed herself, lack of time and activities I wanted to do with the kids, and that hard hellish road trip in the miata!

And how destined it was for me to reject the ring and crystal! When we reboarded, they had a Thomas Kinkade art auction onboard! The 'Painter of Light'. I had my eye on a couple of pieces, one in canvas but naturally the one I chose was congruent to my experiences; Stairway to Paradise! So that became my souvineer and again, the odd timing of how he died just a week and a half before the cruise on a good friday left me...well...astounded and in disbelief with the peculiar harmonious light transecting my journey that seemed to be ordained by fate.

So with a new moon and knowing God was with me all along, how could it not get better? He delivered me again and I am grateful :} I came home with tons of photos, my pastor name up on the board at our church (not being replaced!), and what I prayed for most...our pet pals :))))  A little lagniappe to boot like souvineers, new friends, outlook, and well...yesterday was a great Mother's day and our Pastors sermon had an awesome message about sacraficial love (John 15/16) with joke, analogies, anecdotes...all components to deliver the message within a great sermon!

Although I cook with rums, wines, bourbons and partake in an occasional high ball...it wasn't meant for me to come home with liquors. I did go a bit over budget but that's ok. We got what we needed the most from this trip. We are older so 'fun' has been more replaced with a 'lovely, nice time full of insight' :}

Well...fingers crossed, friends from Canada will come down and we get to take them to Vieux Carre in New Orleans. No festivals, biker events, Mardis Gras happening but I know we will show them the good stuff with lots of class, history, nature, and cultural interest. Like Napoleon's house, Jean Lafittes Blacksmith shop, Marie LaVeau, The Dungeon (slave dungeon once owned by a deceased virgoian biker friend that was turned into a goth bar that opens at midnight), Madame Pontalba's building with the story of why Jackson statue is tipping his hat there (not many people know this one and whoa the parties on the balcony in college! ;).

Perhaps we'll even stay at Beinville House B&B in the French Quarter if not a bayou or cajun cabin in the swamp with a tour out Atchatafalaya? Like bikes...boats come in cruisers and speed so no loud noisy fast airboat for me! I'm cruisin' to enjoy the scenery and sounds the bayou and swamps hold so how can I not go with Black (a cruising singing old school cajun)?  And maybe even a night in one of the plantations along river road in plantation country headed towards Thibodeaux and Morgan City? :) Bocage, Myrtles, Houma House, Oak Alley, Nottoway, Madewood*, Ormond, Cottage, Butler-Greenwood, Greenwood, Ooooo. Sooo many (not to mention my 2 favs in coming back home in Natchez, MS; Monmouth and Dunleith  :)

Just like storms...how can we forget to hope for God's light to break through and shine on our journey's path? Like Thomas Kinkade's paintings, a kindred spirit with a prayer, or that silver lined cloud?

Thomas Kinkade: 1958-2012
'Stairway To Paradise'

And thanks to my husband and friend for the lovely crystal and China Mother's day :}