Today we hunted and gathered. After a breakfast of Juice Plus Complete nutrition drink and some dried fruit Toni had gathered from back home we hunted our entire neighborhood this morning and saw upclose the damages a storm like this can do. Most homes have significant damage; some are blown away. We were fortunate. We repaired the damage to our deck by replacing some missing floor panels with salvage pieces we had to saw with a tree branch pruner, then we shored up a broken corner with long galvanized screws and a special drill bit we had to hunt down at the St. John hardware store. That is part of a routine here. Start a project but realize you need to charge a tool battery or go find a part or a tropical rain shower bursts on you and that requires you to interrupt the repair. So you improvise, or change and work on a different project. Things take more time to get done. Everywhere we look there is something that needs attention but it gets done in segments.
Without refrigeration we shop daily for food and ice if we can get it. Ice even in a cooler will only last a day. We eat a meal or two at local food places and since most are near hot spots we use that time to pirate their free wifi and get some internet stuff done. Gas and material shortages are still a concern. Every day we use a generator and our solar panels to recharge our devices. Communications with insurance people and property manager team members and people back home are slow and erratic but we know they are doing their best under the circumstances. Three people who helped me today each lost their homes but they continue to help us and others while dealing with their own personal chaos. We are so grateful for them.
After reading the book Sapiens by Yuval Harari, I compare the lives of our ancestors who were hunters and gatherers way back when to what we are experiencing. They spent most of their day hunting for food and water and gathering those things they needed and then did it again the next day. So are we, but life is much easier now. Or is it? Back home I work a 50 to 60 hour work week. Our ancestors spent maybe only 35 hours a week hunting and gathering. So I have little time to create and enjoy art and music; they had an abundance of time to watch the stars, dance, tell stories and be with family. I stress about patient care decisions, money, and business challenges. They worried about being eaten by a lion but that didn't happen often. Instead of being scattered hundreds of miles away, their protective families and communities were close and supportive. And since their food was fresh and organic they likely had a lot better nutrition than we do and consequently less disease.
This week I have not checked the news or watched TV. I have not worked for money. I have not engaged in stressful business dealings. My interactions with our community have been kinder and more meaningful. Instead each day I absorb the peace of a sunrise and a sunset and soak in the sound of a tropical rain tapping on my roof. My interactions with our small community have been kinder and more meaningful. I have read books, written stories and watched the night sky. Last night in the darkness of the island with no lights we were entertained by a stupendous meteor shower performing over our deck. There will be another one tonight.
Scanning the clear blue horizon with a even clearer mind I ponder frivolous ideas like why the first voyagers bravely paddled to this island, whether invading pirates of days gone by could sail into Rendezvous Bay below me to reach me with their cannonfire, and how a hermit crab under my stairs got there, six hundred feet from the ocean. In a quiet bay today I snorkeled upon a large spotted eagle ray and a school of cuttlefish. As they circled curiously under me over and over again I wondered what they must be thinking about me. About my species. And how we spend our brief time here.
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