Reflection

If we can open our minds enough to accept nature as our partner and co-worker we will find ourselves at peace. Our energy will increase, our sense of well being and the course our life takes will only be enhanced by our conscious efforts to include nature in the web of connections we weave every day.

Don't be surprised at the growth you experience when you embrace nature. You will become more personally beautiful when you take the small amout of time necessary to interact with it. Wake up early and watch a sunrise, catch a sliver of the moon interacting with Venus, stop to watch leaves flutter as you are walking to work. The time it takes to interact is miniscule in relation to the good feelings it will leave you with.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that we are part of Nature and that we are only one strand of the whole unifying structure that cocoons us.

If we impact it negatively it will increase our discomfort. So partake of its majesty whenever you can.

This morning a large group of us combined exercise and an appreciation for our island environment that encourages us to partake of its offerings. The ocean called and we entered to experience its power and the power it released to us. It was a beautiful morning, clear, sunny and sprinkled with enough waves to move us quickly to our destinations. We had visitors that oooed and ahhhhddd and were most positively touched by the swim and all they saw.

Seeing other people so enthralled with a world we never take for granted just warms my soul.

i hope you enjoy the pictures.

See you next week.

St. Croix Holidays are Here

doesn't look as bad as it felt while swimming in it

It really feels like the Winter Solstice here today. The northwest swells were a challenge to swim through this morning(a surf advisory was out but we went anyway), visibility was minimal just enough to find the path to where you were going, but the ride back in was a blast...surfing all the way... The wind(20-25k)after getting out raised the goose bumps in warp speed. The Christmas Winds have set in with a vengeance, bringing clouds, big swells and gnarly weather to the island.

Its howling up here at the aerie. Comforters are on all the beds(i know you statesiders will laugh at how wimpy we are). i think the night time temperature hasn't dropped below 70 but we are freezing. Sweat shirts and long pants in the evening are a must.

i've been baking my holiday cookies and handing them out to friends only problem is i seem to be testing the quality more than necessary. Out and about around the island it is very festive. A new friend that just moved to the island and swims with us said his wife woke up to drumming and singing this morning, he told her she was hearing things. But when another friend arrived they said they had gone through a huge group of people dancing along behind Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Nights. So it sounds like jouvet which is the start of festivities. i really, really love this time of year.

Chicken Shack setting up the party

Christiansted is decked out in new lights. The Gentlemen of Jones seem to have replaced a lot of the old decorations and even have the Star of David on one end of town. The lights look really bright this year and the ones that cross the street are lovely. The boat parade was last weekend and the Christmas village is going up and every where you go food smells make you want to eat constantly. The racetrack has lots of activity, trainers working their horses and general sprucing up.

All the stores are jammed, people seem to be doing a lot of shopping and finding a parking spot close in takes all ones ommming skills. Kids and family are pouring in from college and jobs in the states. i'll bet this year more are coming home for reunions. Partying is taking a toll and we have barely gotten started...this won't end until the 6^th when the island winds down the festivities with the big parade.

Yummy Lobster

Music is everywhere and i want to share some of our traditional stuff with all a you in the states. So here is Stanley and his gang singing Mama Bake your Johnny Cake Christmas Comin.

See ya next week if i make it!

St. Croix-Aren't we Lucky to live Here-A Medley

 

Steeple Building is getting its shingles replaced today

Anyone going through Christiansted for the next five days will have to put up with some slow down. The steeple building is getting a well deserved face lift. New shingles, matched as well as possible to the historic ones, have to be installed.  In order to do this in the middle of town the contractors will be following the practice used in the past to replace them.

What this means is the top has to come off so the carpenters can work safely doing the replacement. To take the top off a large crane will be put in place to lift it down to the ground. The crane will impact the road and traffic will have to be diverted while it is in place. The roof will be repaired, the crane will put it back on and then be removed so traffic can flow smoothly again.

If you have ever wondered how a pig gets roasted this is the first step

Last weekend after a long swim we ended up having coffee at Bernies in F'sted. The owner was having a birthday bash latter that day and friends were preparing the pig to roast. i like to take pictures of all sorts of things and although it looks gross its interesting too. Notice the way it is attached and the seasoning sticking to the skin.

We have such interesting road side stands...love the hats

One of the really great things about driving around St. Croix is you never know what you will see. This stand really caught my attention with all the hats hung out for everyone to view. i hope the owner had a good day.

I love Century Plants and this one is just getting started

Massacred by a crazy bush wacker

A few years ago an amazing Century Plant at the bottom of my driveway decorated the skies with the most incredible curves you have ever seen. A big C that grew into an S and then flowered. i have scoured the entire island for years trying to capture another one and so far nada. Pictures of the curvaceous one are in the August 2008 blog. This one caught my eye the other day because the top had a bit of a curve so i'll be watching carefully to see what it does. Another one that had promise and was in a spectacular spot had its top lopped off by an over zealous bush wacking machine. i can hardly pass it without lamenting its demise. Don't they realize how many years it takes to even get to the flowering stage?

Where are the surfers?

Beautiful waves have been pounding the shores this past week and when waves and weather combined to deliver that "aren't we so lucky to live here feeling" i went out to take pics and just enjoy everything. i was amazed to find no one surfing these waves in a spot that is usually full.

So much character, I love this boat

 This island has so many beautiful things to photograph and enjoy it just never ceases to astound me. My underwater camera broke when i dropped it so i missed some spectacular pictures of a very large octopus regaling us with his ability to camouflage himself yesterday. He went through all the hues from bone white to a complete blend in with some dark coral. We also had an outstanding Moray Eel that was a brilliant green and completely exposed, he wrapped himself around one of those hated Lion fish, which are really quite beautiful, and just moved on. The turtles, fish and general good feel made for an outstanding day in the water.

Tanker waiting to unload, sun reflecting off its port side

Tankers can be beautiful too when they are waiting just off shore to be called into the refinery. This one had the sun reflecting off its port side and made a small statement in a huge sea of blue. And finally the moon. Sometimes we get so busy we forget to look around and enjoy the small things. Everyone lives in a place that has its own beauty, capture it, look for it, savor it. Connecting is important in personal relationships but it is also important to connect with your environment. Try to do a little bit of connecting each and every day. See ya next week.

The moon last night    

Personal Responsibility

Moral insanity is mania without hallucination. Sufferers maintain their intellectual capacity but become carried away by emotions or moral dispositions, so much so that facts or reality fail to impact them.

Today we have a group of people on one side of the political landscape that are able to lump and blame all poor people, all unemployed, all disabled, everyone on welfare, and anyone that has had anything bad happen to them into the sub category of those who have failed the personal responsibility test.

This test has no questions but does put you in a category of pass or fail depending upon your economic status. Rich is pass, poor or unemployed is fail. It doesn't matter that you may have been born into wealth or came about it illegally, if you are rich you've passed.

Being poor means you have failed the personal responsibility test even if you have worked your entire life and are now unemployed because your factory shut down or your industry has ground to a halt.

Unemployed means you have failed the personal responsibility test even if you have sent out hundreds of resume's, been to umpteen job interviews along with hundreds of other people and are still on unemployment and can't find a job. Collecting unemployment checks even though you have payed into the system for this very reason to insure you against job loss is still failing the test.

The personal responsibility test never takes into account cause and effect. Never acknowledges that many things are beyond your control, like who your parents were, where you were born and how you were raised. Like the factory you have worked for your entire life that shuts down and sends the jobs overseas putting hundreds out of work. Like the company bailing on the pension plans and health care pay outs...or firing you two years before you reach retirement age for some bogus reason. That's your fault you know, you weren't personally responsible.

Failing the test means those who lost all their hard earned money in pension plans and may need welfare to help out in their old age because they were wiped out they weren't personally responsible. Failing the test means that even though you have planned and saved for old age, have health insurance but have to go on Medicaid after selling your home and depleting all your retirement savings when your wife suffered a type of cancer the insurance company wouldn't pay for. You've failed and deserve what happened to you, you weren't personally responsible.  But the people that sold you the insurance policy that doesn't cover your specific disease aren't complicit.

The conservatives defend the view that the rich are moral but the poor or even middle class that are losing homes and jobs and haven't been able to pull them selves out are somehow lacking in personal responsibility and a strong moral fiber.

The personal responsibility test fails to look at that most important segment of society that is causing millions to lose their homes and jobs; that caused the economy to tank by risking other peoples money and then having the taxpayers bail them out, what happened to their personal responsibility, why aren't they held accountable? Why do they get a pass? Its because we passed laws that say corporations are not people when it comes to accountability but they are when they want to finance politics, meaning they write the laws.

Private success and personal freedom depend upon the government protecting all of us equally and that is not happening today. Today it is more about self interest, the ethics of greed and profit as opposed to a market that works for all of us.

The reason that people that put us in this bind are not being prosecuted by our government is because it is too hard. They have too much power and money and can fight for years in court to avoid convictions. But the little guy, that guy that has failed the personal responsibility test he can't even get a hearing to avoid being thrown out of his house.

The hard working taxpayers, the 99% that bailed out the banks and financial institutions don't want corporations controlling their lives more than government. We the People had no control over any of the decisions made in 2008. Corporations govern our lives for their profit not for the nation, those that got bailed out and borrowed that 7.7 Trillion we are only just learning about, they made 13 billion off us...how much did you make? But that shouldn't be the question, it should be how much did you lose? They will send us into oblivion if it means they can make money.

Shouldn't we all be asking why they aren't paying their fair share for the massive amount of tax dollars that 99% of us have spent building the infrastructure they use daily, for the massive amount we have loaned them at rates we will never enjoy?

When we talk about personal responsibility expand that meaning to include those that have caused others to suffer. That have made money off our tax dollars and still want to contribute less and less to the maintenance of this nation.

A robust public is necessary for private success. Corporations have used the government and our tax dollars to their advantage but they don't want you to understand that. We want a Market for All not a Greed Market. When you think about personal responsibility think about how it applies to the wealthy and corporations too, not just the poor and down trodden. Think about cause and effect.

And PS:

When you support busting unions, you support lower wages, longer work hours, and no health insurance or pensions. You support the destruction of the middle class and people moving into poverty. When you support lower taxes for the wealthiest of us you defend the view that the wealthy deserve the power to control you. You support the failure to pass the personal responsibility test. The wealthy and corporations don't care about you, they care about their bottom line, and they sure as hell will use you to vote in their favor.

Corporations and the wealthy need to contribute more, they don't get off using the government for their purposes and to our detriment, that is not what we are about as a nation. Its time to ante up.