It has been over two months since I have written on this blog and my how my life has changed in those two months. It’s hard to write about something or life when your not even really sure what has or is happening. Life is beyond funny; life is amazing, exhilarating, challenging, beautiful and so very unpredictable. There are simply not enough adjectives known to man to even try and describe this crazy thing we call life, but it’s happening, right now, today, whether I can find the words to describe it or not. I think one of the most important things that we must try and do in this grand adventure is simply, learn. Learn from our mistakes, our accomplishments and the life's of others. We must learn and just simply keep going and most importantly, through this process of learning and living, we must always see the beauty that is around us. For it is there all the time, in our darkest days, in the times when we just don't understand anything, beauty is there waiting for us to take it. When we take the time to find this beauty, it helps us to make sense of it all, it helps to make it all acceptable and easier to understand. Even today as I start to try and explain the events of the last two months, I am overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. I cant help but think of the overused cliché "life is what happens when your busy making plans", but it does seem very applicable to my story. Just to put all the cards of the table, things haven't worked out the way I thought they would with my Belize adventure. Now that I sit back and try to catch my breath and find some solid ground, it is apparent it was a struggle from that first day I arrived in Central America. Nothing seemed to want to work out for me. Every day was a battle with everything I tried to do. Two tropical storms and hurricane Richard were major players in this crazy tale. We had decided to try and open a dive shop on the Island and I had found an investor who was going to back this part of the operation. The first tropical storm that headed that way scared him out of the deal. It was very crazy that Belize had not really had that many storms and hurricanes over the years, but they all seemed to head right for me. Once the dive shop deal was on the rocks, then my main investing partner decided to pull out as well. At this point in the game, I did not blame him at all, I knew it was the sound and logical thing to do. But, it left me in a really tough spot. I was knee deep in following a dream and woke up one morning feeling like I was knee deep in quick sand. The second storm that came through the Island did some damage and the owner was dragging his feet about getting things fixed. I knew this would mean that if things were to keep going, I would have to put up more money to keep things afloat. And now being the sole investor of this project, the clouds really came floating in, the proverbial kind. I knew at this point I needed to call a time out and decide if I was going for the hail marry, or was is it time to drop back and punt. Since I am laying all the cards on the table here, I am now down to the one card that holds more weight than all of them, the queen of hearts. Before I left for Belize, I fell in love. I have always said that I am not sure if being a hopeless romantic is a blessing or a curse, and today, Im still not sure. This is a complicated chapter of the story, one I am not sure I will ever fully understand. What I do know is that I have been blessed with having the most amazing, loving, beautiful person I have ever met come into my life, strangely, right as I was walking out the door. That queen of hearts weighed heavily on my soul during those times in Belize. I was constantly asking myself the questions, " do you want to live in a tropical paradise perusing your dream ALONE, or do you want to try and see what could happen with this and maybe, just maybe it would really turn into the one thing I have wanted more than anything my whole life.
So, with all that being said, I am here back in the states. I am going to start working again and sit back and try to make sense of it all. The Belize dream is on hold right now and I am currently taking in all the magic of the wonderful city of New Orleans. Over the last three months, I have gotten so many emails and comments about the inspiration and hope I have given others from my adventure. I hope all of this and all of these cards on the table have not let anyone down, or taken away from anyone wanting to take a chance and make something happen in their life. As everyone knows, sometimes things just don’t work out the way we thought they would, but more often than not, that’s a blessing. As someone once said, "Life is change, growth is optional".......we must choose wisely.
To be continued.........
