Day Three was a day of glorious pictures. First, we went to
Trunk Bay Beach. I did not feel too good that day due to chronic fatigue and fibro, but I distracted myself by taking lots of beautiful pictures.
Isn't that picture inviting? I just want to walk down that path again...
I loved Trunk Bay, but I got frustrated, because supposedly it had wonderful snorkeling and I was tired of waiting to see what was in the water until I got to look at my pictures at night. Fortunately, the next day, my mom was a genius and came up with a solution, but in the meantime, it was hard for me not to get annoyed. It was especially hard for me not to get annoyed because I was tired and hurting. I did still get some good underwater pictures, though. Here's my favorite one for the day:
It's some kind of coral.
On our way back to our cute cottage, we stopped at a overlook and I captured some gorgeous pictures:
(That's a papaya tree on the left.)
I just love the different shades of green!
Now on vacation, as in life, it is important to have goals and my mom came up with a good one-she proposed that we have a smoothie everyday! My dad and I deemed this a worthy goal and the fruity, sugary sweetness soon perked me up.
Colombo's turned out to be one of our favorite smoothie places!
After a much needed nap, we went on the
Francis Bay Walking Trail. I still was not feeling that well, but I am glad I went, because once again, I took beautiful pictures. The trail took us to the beach:
I believe my favorite trail of the day was at Francis Bay, but I am not sure. We walked it right before dusk, on this boardwalk where we were covered by a canopy of creepy mangroves. Actually, like a lot of things I would later discover on the island, the nature surrounding me was slightly creepy and yet very beautiful. The trees provided wonderful shade.
We stopped at a pond and saw ducks!
I had a good day! Unfortunately, when I got home my mind was so tired that it was stuck ruminating. I am embarrassed to say that it was stuck on repeat obsessing about my body. I felt weird that I was wearing a long sleeved shirt when I went snorkeling when everyone else was wearing bikinis. I was doing it because I did not want to get any more sunburned, but they did not know that-what if they thought that I am - *gasp* - unfashionable? I decided to pull out my most tried and true DBT coping skill, which is to distract myself until the thoughts pass. I pulled out my
"Girls Are Not Chicks" coloring book and the first page I turned to instantly got my mind back where it needed to be.
"When she stopped chasing the dangling carrot of conventional femininity, she was finally able to savor being a women."
After reading this quote and coloring the page, I felt free! During the trip, I thought of the quote often and I even made it into a mantra by telling myself,
I do not need conventional femininity!
This was very handy during the trip, because as I quickly found out, the Virgin Islands are not a place to be classically beautiful. My hair was always frizzy, my skin was greasy from the sunscreen and I eventually gave up from showing skin on the beach at all and instead chose to wear both a long-sleeved shirt AND leggings, just to be extra sure that I would not get a sun-burn. Conventional beauty was out, but health and happiness was in! The myth is that conventional womanhood is obtainable and at least where I was, it was not. The truth is that it never really is for long-we might as well be happy with ourselves and our own versions of woman or manhood, whatever that means for us and throw "conventionality" away.
Link Love:
The idea of weight loss creating health is what I call a Galileo Issue – it’s widely believed, fervently supported, it’s heresy to suggest that it’s not true, and yet it is not supported by evidence.
Beauty is the only trait that everyone gets free access to. Why?
Because we have created a culture that values beauty above all other innate traits…for women, at least. Men are generally valued by their success, which is seen solely as a result of talent and hard work, despite how much it depends on luck and knowing the right people.
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