At the start of 2021, I branded this The Year of Hope. Yesterday’s elections in the Cayman Islands brought a sense that the air was pregnant with the seeds of change. Last night, the present Government – the Progressives alliance – were jubilant after the votes had been counted, celebrating openly at their headquarters. This morning, after 10 independent candidates overnight negotiated and formed a new coalition, the outnumbered Progressives had declined comment. The breaking news has shocked the country. Of course nothing is set in stone until the new government is sworn in, so anything can happen in the meantime. Perhaps this should be renamed the Year of Revelation.
This morning, I also awoke to a new age. D prepared a tray of tea on the deck, with a dozen red roses. Last year we celebrated unembellished birthdays in lockdown, rendering physical gifts this year to feel irrelevant. Experiences are more memorable after all. “What would you like to do on your birthday?” D asked me a few days ago. “Jewellery shopping? Lavish lunch somewhere nice? Perhaps a massage at the spa?”
“I’d like to stay put,” I replied. Today was all about celebrating life, and my life feels like it is truly grounded at our home. And thus, after we had started with tea on the deck, followed by a stirring beach walk, a yoga session, and video calls with family, (which included A singing to me from a treadmill in deepest Sussex,) D invited me onto the beach. Here he had laid out a picnic under the shade of some dwarf palms. We reclined on pillows, ate, drank, laughed and looked out to sea. I turned to D, “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
The picnic had to be cut short for a 3-hour online lecture from London, which although bad timing, made me feel so lucky when I saw the other students and the lecturer looking chilly in their respective European cities.
As soon as the lecturer signed off, I was straight out the door to join D in the little boat, engine purring, ready for an adventure. We putted past Rum Point and anchored up at the North shore coral reef. There wasn’t a single soul around as we dropped into the turquoise water. Beneath the surface it was alive with a myriad of coral reef fishes, darting between the fan coral, in its various shades of acid yellow and aubergine, fanning in synchrony with the waves. This was the first time we have been underwater since watching the eye-opener Netflix sensation Seaspiracy. It felt good to reconnect with our finned friends, armed with new knowledge of how endangered they are. Right on cue, I found a large coral head entangled in blue fishing rope, and managed to loosen and remove the rope. It was attached to a large piece of bamboo, which D was able to lift into our boat, along with the rope. Swimming with the fish was exactly what I had hoped for to celebrate my birthday today. I remember when I had fifteen candles on my cake, and wished for things such as my first kiss with someone special, or to be at one with the ocean like Jacques in The Big Blue, my favourite movie at the time. Today it felt like wishes can come true after all. A revelation in itself.
