Change of Pace and...CHOICES?!

Not too many choices here!

I mentioned previously that a change of pace was a good thing - and it is - but we are now learning that it can also be a bad thing (there's that whole yin/yang theme again!).  Up until now, we have only been experiencing tiny islands with little more to offer than simple, natural beauty, walks on the beach and snorkeling.  Our days were filled with reading in the sun, a dip in the water, and maybe - if we were feeling ambitious - a walk on the beach.  All in all, we've lived a pretty lazy existence.  Suddenly, we find ourselves in the land of excursions.  Gone are the vast beach vistas and crystal clear water.  We are now in a mangrove harbor where we cannot swim (the water here is, famously, disgusting) full of other boats in a place where the land is the main draw.  There are actual tour operators here.  Tour operators!  You can hike, bike, white-water raft, visit other cities, rent motorcycles, share cars, go to museums, join organized tours and who knows what else.  Suddenly we feel like we need to be doing something, save we waste precious time.  It reminds me of Chicago in the summer;  so short, so fleeting (I mean, you can usually count the really good weekends on two hands) and once it arrives everyone is in a tizzy of planning - you feel guilty if you don't "take advantage" of every. single. day.  Your summer weekend calendar is full before Memorial day.  That is just insane.

In thinking about this I am realizing it has to do with choices.  When my sister and I were younger and lamenting what to be when we grew up over cups of tea at the table, my mother used to shake her head at us in wonderment, "I don't envy you girls nowadays...you have so many choices ahead of you!  When I was your age, I could either be a mother or a secretary.  That was it.  There just weren't all these choices to make."  She's right (aren't' they always?).  There is something I don't know...easy about having just a few choices.  When we were in the islands; we could either a) walk on the beach b) snorkel c) go swimming.  That was about it.  Now, there are so many choices that we actually have to do research to find out what it is we actually want to do.  It's actually a little exhausting.  Anyone who doesn't catch my drift here need only go shopping for a box of cereal in an American grocery store.  It, too, is insane.

Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining or saying that having choices is a bad thing.  Having choices separates the have's from the have not's. But I am saying that life was just a little more simple without so many of them.  And we are learning that we like simple.

PS.  I do not want to imply that we are not enjoying ourselves here - because we are LOVING it.  I am just making an observation, as I so often do ;).

PPS.  If you want to see all the fun we have been having - go check out all our pictures on Facebook!