Perched on what — by all accounts — will be a challenging and exciting year, I find myself in a quandary as to what to do about my life here in the Virgin Islands.
I love these small islands nestled in what must have been and still is God's perception of the Garden of Eden, yet for the first time in my adult life, I have a yearning to seek distant shores, to test unfettered waters, to cross over from my comfort zone of living into the treacherous, sometimes shark-infested waters of the unknown.
At 45, one might wonder, why even bother? The truth is if we are to live fulfilling lives, we have to bother. There is no period in our life where self-discovery and revelation do not occur. Therefore, we must seek new boundaries for ourselves on a daily basis.
Now at the beginning of this year before great occurrences change our lives forever, I find that I spend time each day figuring out what needs to change within, what energies I must re-direct if I am to prosper and thrive in ‘99.
I found myself very impatient with the modus operandi in the Virgin Islands in ‘98. Frustration at overpriced items, long lines and ineffective leadership made me question everything that I believed in as a Virgin Islander. It also made me impatient for change and improvement in all areas of my life.
Because patience is no doubt one of life's greatest virtues, my internal critical mechanism worked overtime, trying to get me to take pleasure in the moment. This process, however, did reap some rewards. It made me realize that we should all have a commitment to improving our thinking.
Today, the days are filled with quiet anticipation, the kind that renews optimism but is grounded in that mature realism that comes from understanding that change and life are synonymous.
Truly, if we are to seek new boundaries for ourselves, we must question our motives for those changes; for in an attempt to alleviate our frustrations, we may make hasty decisions that will not afford us the positive growth and expansion for which we dreamed.
I will test and re-assess my boundaries this year, but not because I am frustrated, but because I am motivated to seek new ideas, embrace life-changing concepts and form productive, reciprocal alliances.