Storytime

It's time for a very short little story. I recently began an interesting set of short stories and this is the even shorter cliff notes of the third story in the anthology. A middle aged husband and wife were sailing out in the ocean when they were besieged by a near disastrous storm. Their boat was shipwrecked but fortunately very close to a small uninhabited island. They were without communication and very alone and afraid. As a few weeks passed they began adapting to the island as it was somewhat rich with food (fruits and some wildlife) and were able to take advantage of the salvaged material and food items from their boat. They were anxiety ridden with fear of how long they could last but their wits and skills kept these fears at bay. After a month they were salvaging through old boat parts and found their binoculars and proceeded to explore the island's far sides. As they walked they eventually came upon what appeared to be a stone path leading into the water. They discovered, using the binoculars, the path led to another island which was inhabited with another family and saw that it to had a path to yet another island. And on this went. Most of the other patches were inhabited but not all. They began to visit and found each island's family had set themselves up quite well and ingeniously to make the best of their predicaments. All were glad to see each other and visited regularly but always happily went back to their own habitats. When they did visit they shared stories, lives and visions of what the future might hold for them. They relished their visits and cherished their shared times together and looked forward to going back to their new homes, partly because they could look forward with anticipation to their next visits and partly because they all needed to continue to improve their new lives and homes. This continued with great wonderment for all, but interestingly enough from time to time they would awaken and on occasion one family had found a way to depart and shortly afterwards another would arrive. ( I know I promised this would be the cliff notes.) Everyone had difficulty with their initial arrival but all adapted and began to view their new homes and new environment as sacred, healing spaces.

I tell you this because the story teller upon waking up from this dream found himself in an infusion room for chemotherapy. This was what my day was like and I feel blessed and needed to find a different way to share it.