[Home = Jamaica] Where My Heart Is

Posted on February 28, 2011May 30, 2013 by Marcia Mayne

Until I purchased my apartment several years ago, home, for me, meant the place where I grew up in Jamaica; the place I go to relax and recharge when life in the U.S. takes its toll, the place where my heart really is.

Then, it became “home, home” to differentiate it from my “home” – the place I owned.

When I go “home, home” I revert to the person I was when I lived there, except now, I’m the adult. I have the freedom to do whatever, go where ever.

So I explore. I explore the place and I explore the me I am when I’m there. The me that feels free – to engage, to push back, to confront, to love, to be passionate, to be playful. It’s the me that sometimes comes to the fore when I’m in the States but takes so much more energy to be.

And simple things, like drinking the juice or water of a freshly picked coconut, make me smile.

You really have to know what you’re doing

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Pelican Bar: We’re going there?!

Posted on January 24, 2011March 20, 2013 by Marcia Mayne

A Musing Elephant and I exchanged a few comments about a recent post on her blog. When she mentioned that one of favorite places in Jamaica is Pelican Bar, I felt I had “met” a kindred spirit. Pelican Bar is one of my favorite places as well.

Our exchanges took me back to my first trip to the bar and the memories I have which serve me now on this cold day in the north east.

Pelican Bar is located on a sand bank about a quarter of a mile off the south western coast of Jamaica between Black River and Treasure Beach.

As Floyd, the owner, tells it, the idea for the bar came to him in a dream. He built it, and they’ve been coming.

Pelican Bar has been named one of the sexiest swim-up bars and has a fan page on Facebook.

The only way to get there is by boat so don’t think of going if you’re afraid of the water or if the sea is rough.

Continue reading “Pelican Bar: We’re going there?!” →

To us, all flowers are roses

Posted on November 29, 2010March 14, 2013 by Marcia Mayne

I think of that phrase from my favorite Jamaican poetess and author, Lorna Goodison, each time I ask family members and friends the names of flowering plants that adorn their gardens and they tell me they don’t know or aren’t sure. I smile and I also understand.

Jamaica is a paradise for plants and flowers. With more than 200 species of orchids, nearly half endemic to the island, several hundred types of ferns, trees and other plants it’s no wonder many of us don’t know the names of most of them.

But don’t for one second think that because we can’t call a flower by its given name that we don’t care about them. We are passionate about our flowers. Get a group of women together and the conversation will eventually get around to flowers. And if a friend, neighbor or stranger has something we don’t have, we are not above asking for a cutting.

I love flowers and enjoy discovering (to me) new ones and re-discovering those I haven’t seen in a while. But since I don’t have a green thumb, I settle for photographing them. I’ll leave it up to you to tell me their names.

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