Almost Paradise
I feel my feet hit the gritty warm sand as it crunches beneath my weight and slides like time between my toes. I think as I turn to the lush green canyons torn by thin snow white clouds, if this is the one place in the world that actually maintains beauty, untouched and unaffected by man. It is like nowhere else, something you can only see on a postcard or in a movie. Some place that you can only see in your dreams and imagination, too beautiful to be real. The cool breeze flowing down from the still and quiet mountains hits my face and plays with my hair. I watch as it blows the pink flower from my hair down the beach. I run, chasing after it like a woman in the city, who’s brand new hat has just been stolen from her head by a cool summer wind, forcing it to soar like an uncontrollable bird into the busy street. Sand flies from my feet as I run after the bright blossom. My fingertips graze the soft flower before it slips from my hands again. When I finally catch it, I hold it up to the light of a late afternoon sun, the warmth burning into my bare shoulders as the wind sends a slight chill down my spine. I examine its beauty; its soft petals in full bloom and the color more vibrant than I have ever seen. I slip the hibiscus back into my hair as I reach the cold ocean water hits my feet sending the black sand clinging to my feet like a magnet. I watched a whale rise out of the deep blue ocean ahead of me crashing against the water as his huge form hit the water. I wonder how big he actually is and exactly how many of them are actually out there. I gaze into the distance, a seemingly endless plane of water. The colors so rich that they can’t even be mixed by a painter. Palm trees bend and sway beneath the weight of the chilling wind as night draws nearer and an array of colors fills the sky. I stare like a child who has never seen a sunset before at the brilliance and beauty of it all. I breathe in the fresh tropical air and listen to the waves crash on the beach and on the nearby cliffs draped with narrow curving roads. The sun fell beneath the horizon and the moon lit up the night sky. I stare up at the stars hanging in the cloudless black and blue sky. They shone for me alone and held a magical power over every eye that looked upon them. My gaze wanders back to the water and crashing waves, the moonlight now dancing on the breaking point further out in the ocean. The moonlight illuminates everything casting a silver glow upon the world and me as I watch it dance upon my rough feet. The mountains still hold their magic as they sit quite and untouched by the moon’s bright, heavy, silver glow. The beauty keeps me silent and my soul is at peace as the water touches the tips of toes and my hands surrounded by an infinity of black sand. The beauty is so surreal, having the effect of erasing any desire to be anywhere else in the world. Somewhere in my mind, I know that God is here. Maybe this is the true garden on Eden. Or is it heaven? If it isn’t, what is it? Paradise? I take a deep breath and open my eyes.