Extraordinary

“Have you ever considered,” asks Reepicheep the gallant sword swinging mouse in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, “that extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people?”

He is trying to console Eustace Smith the selfish brat who lets his greed get the best of him by putting on a golden bracelet that turns him into a dragon. Eustace put his own desires above others and that always does you in. In the end he has the chance to redeem himself by putting others first and he does.

But Reep’s question is a good one. Have you ever considered that extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people?

I think so but you have to be open to it. You have to be willing to becoming extraordinary and then doing extraordinary things.

Sadly, most of us don’t.

We settle for ordinary.

We stay in the same place though it doesn’t challenge us to grow. We remain in relationships that are stale and stagnant because that’s what we’re expected to do. Routines never change. Jobs become a boring means to support what we have, though not necessarily what we want.

Standing in the Atlanta airport yesterday I was talking to my son Jeremy. Since graduating college he’s pretty much done the things that were expected of him … he was a teacher and coach ... bought a nice house … kept the grass cut … helped his wife Marie do the dishes … paid his bills on time.

And while a lot of good came out of all of this … so did a lot bad. Jobs can be lost. Storms cause trees to fall on houses. There’s never enough money at the end of the month. Routine can lead to lethargic living. Depression can set in.

So they decided to blow it all up. Sell the house. Get an apartment in town which is what they’ve always wanted anyway. Go back to school and become the family’s first Ph. D. Throw caution to the wind. Do extraordinary things which will lead to extraordinary results!

Later in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” a little girl says to Lucy, the young heroine Princess, “When I grow up I want to be just like you.”

Lucy has been struggling to grow up to become beautiful like her sister. She doesn’t think she is and has fought through the temptation to make herself into something other than who she is.

She puts her arm the little girl and says, “No you don’t. When you grow up, you want to be just like …you.”

And that’s the thing. When we embrace ourselves and live up to the potential that is who we really are, then extraordinary things begin to happen. It often leads to leaving homes, relationships, jobs, safe routines and the same old ordinary expectations that are placed on us.

I was laughing with Jeremy. “I know right? Here I am heading back to St. Martin to hook up with a friend just … to have fun. I should be working. I should be home. I should be saving the money. I should be continuing this healing that I’ve been doing emotionally. I should stay in place.”

But I didn’t. To hell with all of that!

And I’m proud that my son didn’t either ... or his sister who is in Italy for six months with her fiancée ... or his other sister who has always defied societal expectations.

Like them, there is so much more that I want out of this life before it is no longer mine. I’ve had a lot already, much of it extraordinary but …there’s more.

I believe that God wants to have all of the life that we have and not just parts of it. I want a new career that is more satisfying and rewarding than the last one. There is a girl out there with a Mona Lisa smile that I’m determined to hold onto. There’s more of the world to see that I haven’t seen.

Pausing I look up into the canopy of long leaf Palm Trees that I’m sitting under. Coconuts are plentiful in them. Pink blooms are in the bushes across the sandy road from where I am. The Trade Winds of the French West Indies is light like the blue in the sky. The warm air embraces me. I whisper a prayer of thanksgiving that I am here.

It is simply … extraordinary.

Troppo

Like all enlightened people George Harrison found the beach after the Beatles. He got a place on a mountain overlooking the ocean in Hawaii. He’d had a string of strong solo albums until he did one titled “Gone Troppo” about life at the beach. It did not sell well so George said “What the hell?” and took several years off to be a beach bum before coming back and starting the “Traveling Wilburys” to finish his career.

On the album is this catchy little tune “Gone Troppo” that is just full of visuals of life at the beach.

I am one of those people who live at the beach and vacation at other beaches.

This morning in the warm dark of the back deck I sipped coffee and petted Goddess. No breeze disrupted the quiet and salt water hung in the air. Then Kristen comes blowing making tons of noise screaming for coffee. Her long blond hair is brushed but the rest of her looks like she has just drug herself out of bed. Which she had!

Goddess was immediately suspicious. She jumped on her bed and just started at me. I knew what she thinking. “He’s leaving again, damn him!”

I’m off again to St. Martin where Conner and I will reform “Team Mike” and spontaneously figure out ways to make ourselves laugh without ceasing. Carlos, Verna and my other Chelsea will be there. And Nathalie is already worried because Conner has booked time with her (waxing will be involved).

I’m looking forward to this trip because the last couple of times I was on St. Martin it was a much more difficult time. In November with Conner and Hania I was still just trying to cope managing so many radical changes in my life occurring at the same time. At one point Conner told me that I wasn’t doing all that good. Hania kept trying to get me to eat.

Over Christmas I was just trying to get through the holidays without getting depressed. But I learned that it’s never a good idea to be in a foreign country with an expired passport and was ordered by none other than Trish DuPriest to “get your ass home now.” So I did.

This time though, I feel good. Productivity has suddenly become abundant again and possibilities suddenly abound. There are things that I will actually miss while I’m gone … a birthday party of a little girl who has come to mean a lot to me … Chuck Courtenay’s concert at Marlin Monroe’s …to see if Franklin (who is brown) survives another day … Goddess, the beloved back deck and the sad little holy dock.

Yet this trip comes at a good time. It will wash the taste away of the disrupted Christmas. It is a dividing line of finishing the Sabbatical because when I return there is a lot that I will be doing. Before this trip I wallowed in lost love but now I’ll come back full of it and ready to share it. Bikinis will be in season when I return to Tybee and there is a belly or two that I really enjoy looking at!

For the past couple of years I was in a state of shock in St. Martin. For the first time I was traveling alone and it was depressing. Conner and Hania took on the role of caregivers as good friends do during difficult days. Whenever I would return from St. Martin my close friends and the ones I love the most would be waiting on me to see how I was handling things.

These are the people that I will keep posted on this trip because they care and have become daily constants in my life. I love them so. Rather than hooking up with Conner needing him to drag me into good times, today I just can’t wait!

And in just a few hours I’ll be standing in the surf of the aqua blue bay staring at the island of Anguilla in the distance and watching the waves crashing over the reef and then gently settling into the bay. I’ll probably compare that image to my life. Not too long ago I was crashing around through life. Now a gentleness has come to dominate it.

So I leave looking forward to a celebration of how far I’ve come and very much looking forward to coming back for the beginning of summer on Tybee Island. And all of the crazy love that encompasses me there.