TAKE A WORTHWHILE DETOUR IN 2010

Detours often lead to bold awakenings. Back in November, as I was returning from a meeting with a group of coffee growers in the remote village of Mabial, I decided to take a detour to the revered topaz pools near Jacmel. At the trailhead that leads to the aptly named Bassins Bleus, I met with two young guides who, barely out of their teens, knew every legend and infamous story behind each rock and tree along the path to the pools. Who would have thought that the river stone ruin that forms the entrance to the first pool is the remnant of a cross Atlantic love story. At the last and largest pool, my guides invited me to take a dive off the cliff above, but I decided to sit this one out and just take pictures instead. As I shot them jumping fearlessly off the cliff, I could not help but think of the old adage: “what doesn’t kill you certainly makes you stronger.” I thought of the first dive that my young friends ever took and understood that every dive taken by them since then had led to this last one, in which they appear to have been born of the water, submerging and emerging from it as dolphins in the ocean. Every past year, including 2009, which may have been the toughest for many of us, has been leading up to this one. That said, the New Year promises to be the year in which we can dive fearlessly in the world and emerge as one with it. For those of us who recognize this, let us harness the endurance, knowledge and strength that we have earned in past years to change lives, bring hope and share the promise of even better years to come.