WRITE AWAY

I couldn't explain it, but the evening of the day I wrote the post about Rick Moore, I was struck with a very strong feeling that I was one step closer to my dream of spending a lot more of my year in the Caribbean. There was nothing specific I could point to and say "this is why", but nevertheless it felt like something had broken open for me in a spiritual way. What came to mind was a visual I had when reading the book Thornbirds. In the story there is a sheep farm that has a long private dirt drive leading to the house from the road, and along the drive there are 12 big gates that have to be opened and closed as you get to them and through them. So one had to stop the jeep, get out, open the gate, drive through, get out, close it, and continue on - repeating the process a dozen times. I felt like I had just opened and gone through the first gate of that road.

The next morning I had two offers for writing in my email, as a direct result of that post. One was for a new online magazine about the BVI and one was from Rick himself who has a doctor friend who read the post and wanted an expanded version to go into two medical journals.

I am still waiting for more information about the journals but a few days ago I wrote my first paid-for travel related article. I am thrilled, to say the least, and am hoping it will lead to more opportunities to write about the places I love so much.

The article won't be available to the public to read for a few weeks yet. As soon as it is I will post a link to it. But until then, here is a taste to pique your interest.

When my daughter told me that she and her fiancé were planning to get married in the
British Virgin Islands, I will admit I was hesitant. It seemed like a daunting task to plan a
destination wedding in a location which no one we knew personally had ever visited.
Not only that, we didn’t know anyone who had even planned a destination wedding thus
we had no one to go to for advice. To complicate matters, my daughter was still living in
London and I was in Vancouver right up until a month before the date. But as she was
from Vancouver, Canada and he was from London, England, their choice of a middle
ground, as it were, seemed ideal.

After 6 months of emails, phone calls, tears, excitement, frustration, and at times feeling
like a blind person working in a dark room - the time to pack our bags and head to the
Caribbean was upon us. We had done all that we could and the rest was up to the
wedding planner we had hired, the resort’s event planner, and fate.

It was the most beautiful and perfect wedding I have ever attended.

There were one or two things we had tried to have happen that never did, there was lost
luggage, and there was a struggle with the wedding planner for where exactly the
ceremony would take place but, in the end, the location trumped everything. So if you
are looking for a spectacular setting for your special day, and you don’t mind a little
effort to get there, then nowhere on earth could be more beautiful for a wedding than
the BVI.

If you are considering a BVI wedding, here are a few things that might help you from our
experience:

I can't wait until you can read the rest. And I hope there will be many more articles to come!