It’s the medication, but it’s not the cure.
I’ve been coming to the Cayman Islands since 2011 and over those years these islands have become a sanctuary; a spiritual home. It’s become the place where I can exhale, breathe and escape the emotional and spiritual pain that I feel when I’m doing real, everyday life.
It numbs the emotions that I find challenging to manage, and when I’m here, it feels like Mother Nature is on constant hand to soothe my wounds.
That’s not to say I don’t feel while I’m here; I’ve had some of the most emotionally distressing experiences of my life in these islands, but I feel free as I run in to her arms and pour it all out. In the midst of the pain, she soothes with healing balm and all becomes manageable again.
Although this experience has been true for many years, I’m grounded in my humanity to understand that these islands, Mother Nature and the relief I feel while I’m here, is not the cure.
It doesn’t make my problems go away. It doesn’t miraculously heal wounds and erase memories. And that’s why being in the Cayman Islands is never a guarantee of an easy, trigger free Christmas.
Wherever I am, and with each year of this Fat.Ugly story, I lean more and more in to the trust I have for myself and the tools and strategies I’ve learned to apply and practice in my life. Sometimes I need the medication, but I’m now getting stronger in my own ability to be the cure I always needed.
Takeaway: Everything I need to manage myself and my life, is within me. Being in the Cayman Islands is simply the restbite that refreshes me to keep going.