Turn-Ons: What writer doesn't love free wi-fi, comfy outdoor seating, lots of healthy & not-so-healthy food options, and hot coffee?
Turn-Offs: It was Starbucks coffee.
Rate My Date:
- Not My Type
- 1 Night Stand
Crush
- In Love
- Happily Ever After
As I sat outside at the open-air cafe chomping on jerk chicken salad and staring past the bust of Buddha in the middle of the bougainvillaea-filled entrance, I couldn't stop thinking about the power of choice. Not just because the custom salad I chose was chock full of savory chicken breast and within the parameters of my new weight loss plan to "get my dancer's body back". But staring back at me was a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses; a huge symbol of my past. For me, the Kingdom Hall represents a time when my life choices were dictated by group think. When Biblical interpretation was used to stifle my vision of what my life could look like, be like and feel like if I followed my passions and chased my dreams. A time when I couldn't be my authentic self and choose my own moral code or socio-political views. I felt stuck. And yet I chose to remain stuck and unhappy because it seemed far easier than experiencing the disapproval of my parents and being shunned by my congregation. Until one day I finally made the conscious choice to BE ME at age twenty-three.
As other expats and tourists entered, ate and left, I sipped on my bitter Starbuck's coffee and kept thinking about how different my life would've been had I never dared to exercise my power of choice. How I would've always been plagued by my own unexplored potential. If I had let fear block me from taking risks in my life, I never would've experienced a twenty year career as professional dancer and aerial artist. And ultimately, I wouldn't be sitting at this outdoor cafe in Turks & Caicos eating my custom jerk chicken salad on my day off from the five-star resort where I currently work as the Pilates/Fitness Instructor. So as I stared at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses across the street and remembered times of piety, obedience and conditional love, I realized that my "rebellion" was actually an act of self-love. And so I looked at Buddha and found my zen.
