By Susan Moir Mackay
Grand Bahama Island, the perfect place to relax….a perfect place to hang out and do……well, do nothing!!!
Life is full of people that DO things. In fact we are all so busy doing things that we own the label of our jobs as if it defines our whole personality.
When I first moved to Grand Bahama I was shocked to realize that I was not allowed to work and my title, my raison d’etre had become only ‘girlfriend’ and that had to satisfy all questions as to what I was, and why I was here!
In subsequent years I added to my mantel with the titles ‘wife’ then ‘mother’. On returning to Britain for vacations, attending terribly clever parties with my old school friend, a successful Barrister in London, her terribly successful friends would ask what I ‘did’. An uneasy silence would ensue after my stammered reply. It seemed I didn’t do very much. A crime in smart London society!!
More time passed under the bridge and inevitably washed away the crust of social expectations. Living in Grand Bahama will do that to you. It seems impossible to maintain your opinions and attitudes from where you are from without it creating dissonance – a note not in harmony with the tune being played here. Like the oceans inevitable sweeping clean the beach with the tides, attitudes that are entrenched by a European, or Scandinavian or American taint, become softened by the predictable sun and tropical climate. There is a poetry to the incessant sun that seems to say ‘it is what it is’ and if you try and fight it you will only sweat!
In a course on meditation I came across the wonderful concept that suggested I could stop ‘doing’ or trying to do and I could just ‘be’. And that no title was necessary and no justification of my existence was necessary.
In a state of ‘being’ there is a beautiful epiphany of allowing one’s life and one’s self exactly as it is. There is a moment of peace to be drunk in like the elixir of a glass of cold water on a hot day- something so nourishing about its simplicity. ‘Being’ is wide open to a multitude of answers, solutions, personalities and future endings and beginnings. In a state of ‘being’ there is an eternal sense of being a part of everything that exists. It reminds us that we are all human beings as opposed to limited to a job title – no matter how grand.
This island of contradictions and opportunities, and bound by sun, sea and sand, this island that is NOT Asia, not American, not Europe, not Africa, has the space to offer a wonderful gift of ‘being’ without the multitude distractions common to western civilization and in the empty expanse of beach and possible ‘nothing to do’ we are given an opportunity to step into a different perspective, listen to a different tune and sit under a Poinciana tree for a moment and ‘just be’.
Sitting under an island tree, feeling its stoutness support us, as we gaze gently at the ocean playing with the shore, if we are terribly clever at allowing that gentle state to pervade our bones, we might relax and stop ‘doing’ - happy to be who we are, as imperfectly perfect as that might be, with no title required other than human being!!!
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Susan Moir Mackay is a professional artist with a B.A. (Hons) in Art and Design from Edinburgh College of Art. She is an impassioned advocate of art and has a deep abiding belief that art benefits individuals and communities. Susan has travelled extensively, observing art in all its forms and has invested much of her time to art education projects, as well as developing her own art works and exhibitions. Susan currently lives in Freeport with her two children, Fiona and Dylan. She can be reached at sozmac@hotmail.com
