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sometime before noon EST on Thursday, May 11th till May 15th around 4:30pm, i stood still as the rest of the world kept on chugging.  

for those few days, i did not turn my cell phone on, check my email, use the computer, read the paper or watch the news.  half the time i didn’t even know what time or what day it was.  it was as tranquil as i had felt in a long long time.

it was a mellow existence.  wake up, get some breakfast, go dive.  have a late lunch, then lounge around the pool for a bit, take a nap, then dive more.  go into town, have dinner, smoke a Cuban cigar and pass out before you hit the pillow.

the dives were incredible.  it was just gliding along with the current (and sometimes against it), suspended in the middle of the ocean, looking at the underwater world.  look up, you see rays of sunlight filter through the surface, sinking and eventually disappearing around you.  look down, only to see the darkness of a seemingly endless abyss below.  you shiver a bit, so you start looking around you, and you see all the critters going about their business.  

puffers and boxfishes zipping around the corals.  lobsters hiding in caves, their antennas twitching around, detecting intruders.  a turtle gently gliding along the water, oblivious to our presence;  moray eels resting in a small hole, only to snarl at us when our presence was discovered.  a spotted stingray, cutting through the water effortless, with its long tail floating behind it;  little cleaner shrimps cleaning and resting on bubble anemones, fishes the size of my head wandering around the coral reefs.  it was truly one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

in the evenings, a Cuban cigar in hand, sitting on the balcony, watching the darkness of the ocean.  far away, you see the bright lights of a bigger town across the water.  i turned older sitting on the balcony.  i reflect, only to realize that as years go by, complicity of life increases, and my certainty of what i know decreases drastically.  friends, foes and everything in between has become a chore.  money, status and prestige, they’re a good goal to set your standards to, but more and more, i’m unclear if that’s my purpose.

so i just take another puff of my Epicure No. 2, lean back, listen to the waves crashing into the beach, close my eyes, and just enjoy the little slice of serenity that i am afforded.