journal entry, october 18, 2024

i’m up on the balcony with nuala, the sun slowly setting in front of us, billie marten playing on the now-sandy speaker. there is such a profound aura of peace around us right now and the colors are only adding to it— the red clay houses with faded turquoise shutters, the greens swaying with the evening breeze, the purple horizon fading up and into pinks and yellows and finally a light blue. the sounds of small birds in nearby trees. the crescent moon coming into view. it’s our final night here and i can’t believe how much these past four days have done for me. being enveloped by such rugged nature for so much of each day has regrounded me, has newly shown me how important this act of physical regrounding is. nature is healing. the ocean is healing. i can’t remember the last time i swam in water this blue. my mind has had so many prolonged moments of quiet— a presence that requires no effort. and i credit this inner calm to the girls i’ve been surrounded by, and the nature i’ve been existing in and around. this island is so overwhelmingly beautiful and i feel so grateful to have witnessed a few pockets of its beauty.