*This is a blog entry
I started at the end of December, and then got involved in the writing prompt
challenge, but for today, instead of the writing prompt provided, I am going to
share these lessons learned from my life in the islands.
Residing on a 3
mile long, ½ mile wide low-lying coral atoll for 17 years taught me a few
lessons that are really being driven home as I settle back into stateside,
American life. Here’s just a few of
them….
1. Let the little things go!
You can’t experience small town life any smaller than life
on Kwajalein. There’s one grocery store
with limited product selection and often no selection if the planes are not
running that week or the whole batch of milk sent went bad on the way and never
made it to the shelf. You see the people
you work with at the store after work, at the barbeque down at the beach on
Friday night, and riding down the road on bikes to check your mail. So, you are always “on,” so to speak, never
anonymous, never able to just sink into your own thoughts because the next day
you will hear from a friend how someone else thinks you’re snobby because you
didn’t see them and speak at the post office the day before. And the worst part of it all is that EVERYONE
on island KNOWS your business (sometimes before you even do!) This was very
hard for me the first decade of my island life, but gradually I learned to just
let the little things go. When there was
no decent bread at the store, I learned to make my own. When riding down the
road on my bike, I learned to pay more attention to my surroundings, enjoying
the social aspect of life in a small community, and when going through tough
times and hearing all the gossip about me that hurt, I learned to let it go,
which leads me to the #2 lesson.
2. You can’t control everything, and even if you could, why
would you want to?
Living on the same, small island for over a decade and ½, I
saw many people come and go, and the prevailing commonality among all of them
was the ability to settle in quickly, forgetting how absolutely gorgeous the
ocean all around them is, how nice it is to have the time and energy to go hang
out at the beach or scuba dive every day after work, and how lucky they are to
live and work on a tropical island in the warm bathtub of the Pacific Ocean
near the equator, and instead begin the tirade of complaints about what the
island is NOT and what we do NOT HAVE. When
the weekly plane with produce lands, word of what comes off that plane quickly
spreads to the housewives, who call each other and rush to the store before
everyone else gets off work, so they can stock up (and sometimes hoard) the
supplies that will soon be depleted until the next plane. Food being a basic necessity, this is the
chief concern of all, although there are other issues with life on an isolated
atoll that residents find reason to gripe about. The bottom line is that NONE
of these issues are things any of us can control, so why try to. Enjoy the sunsets, the warm water, the beautiful
almost neon green color that comes out right at dusk every night, which makes
up for what we lack, right? Along those
lines…see #3…
3. Life is what you make it; it’s all a matter of
perspective.
You can complain to complain or to have something to talk
about OR you can learn to be content with where you are and what you are doing
right now. If you are always looking at
the negative, than that is what your life will be, negative. Focus on what you have, the blessings of life
on an island or in the mountains or with your family and choose to control the
way you think about things because that’s one of the few things we can take
charge of in our lives. It’s always
easier to put things in perspective when you are out in nature enjoying its
bounty, and so we come to our last, but not least lesson learned from island
living….
4. There’s so much to be said for real “down time.”
Mainly, what I have come to miss (besides for all the life
long friends I made while living in the Marshalls) is the down time. Between driving to work 30 minutes each way,
taking care of the dog and errands as soon as I arrive home, and the light
going out so much earlier much of the year in the NW (it’s not light until 7:30
am right now and dark again by 5:00 pm), then dinner, it’s time for bed. Between the end of my day and bed on
Kwajalein, I could attend my children’s sports games, go to the store (actually
all 4 stores on island), have dinner with my family, and then have an hour long
meeting with my cub scout den, all before 8 pm.
Needless to say, this was not really down time. Somehow, even on a small
island, we learn how to overschedule ourselves, but when you needed real “down
time,” island life gave you plenty of opportunities to have it. Heading to the
beach to have a chat, subway sandwich, and a glass of wine isn’t easy to plan
and pull off here in the states, but on an island, it’s just a matter of
picking up the phone, pulling out your beach chair, stopping by subway for the
sandwich, then biking down to the beach…which can all happen within 30
minutes.
No matter where you live, a peaceful life comes from finding
contentment in your present circumstances. I can still have down time here, but it’s more
a matter of making room for it in the schedule.
Weekends are too short for all the things that need to get done, but at
least on an island, you could still fit a little weekend into your week with a
dive or swim in the lagoon after work.
I find my contentment now in a clear view of the magnificent
Mt. Rainier while waiting at the traffic light coming off the freeway next to
the dog park. I find peace when
discovering a new hidden gem of NW nature, which is everywhere you turn when
you take the time to look. I love being closer to family, and I enjoy going to
see my first Monster Jam or making my way through my first Corn Maze. There’s so many things that were not a part
of island life that are new and exciting to me now, so I’m finding joy in each
moment, each new experience, and I can’t wait to see where life will take us
next….from the atoll to the mountains to the….Life is what you make it, and as
for me, I like to think of it as an adventure, which is the biggest life lesson
of all!!
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