Just reef-it

I've always viewed life as various chapters awaiting to be filled. Sometimes pages are filled with profound events and other times not. The past week has been anything but normal, but as I grow older I've come to the conclusion that I'll never fit the 'mold' of society and will nearly always be traveling a path that will inevitably raise a few eyebrows.
Today for instance I awoke on San Salvador Island to the rattling of something outside my window around four in the morning. I'm not faint of heart, but have gathered a tad of common sense in my years and had no desire to challenge the animal of a four legged nature pacing around our dorm area. Persevere over strange scary animal in the middle of the Caribbean: Check. Glad I have that one down.
Early a.m. our research team spent a solid hour digging out the concrete reef structures that we built a few days prior. Molding them in the ground was one thing, but carving and then lifting them out was a whole different ball game. The research center is focused on accelerating reef reconstruction to better the aquatic life & with that they survive on grants & gov't funding. I didn't have any expectations treking here, but when they say no frills they totally mean it. From the living arrangements to the research equipment it's a loose version of Survivor without the 1 million dollar pot at the end. Trying to cut and prop equipment with dulled materials and sometimes no materials at all has made me think more out of the box than normal (I know, you didn't think that was possible did you?). I'm loving having to search down the beach for tree limbs, rocks & anything else that would suffice for 'research equipment.' Going from addiction's counselor to 'reef survey researcher' has been a pretty sweet transition, but I don't forsee a future in this life time. It is intense an intense field of work that I have a whole different level of respect for.
Mid-afternoon we took a tour of the island and met up with some locals for a great lunch of conch fritters, beans & peas (local thing), grouper & some seriously epic Bahamian music to boot. I was stoked when the wind switched up making it impossible to do another dive from any other sites today for further mapping. Yesterday I hit a wall and was all but lost in the realm of positive self talk. I hung with some others from the research center wading in the water, surface diving at leisure for conch shells & star fish & just soaking in the moment of being on the island.
Once the sun goes down and the breeze kicks in I'm off with some other research folk to the east side of the island to meet up with some locals for a game of poker & a cold cerveca watching the sun go down. It totally doesn't get any better than that.
Embrace the moment, live life with open arms & and open heart - I promise you won't have any regrets. Until tomorrow...