“The Sea and Nature,” Paco said, his weathered face beaming joy. “That’s what I love. The Sea and Nature. And everyday I get to be on this boat. It’s what I was meant to do.”
We were snorkeling off Monkey Island in Puerto Rico over New Year’s with friends. We had run into Paco a few days earlier along the harbor in Naguabo. The old salt pointed to his blue and red wooden boat anchored nearby and encouraged us to join him on a tour.
“The weather Wednesday morning should be outstanding!”
Wednesday we drove through a rain storm to the harbor. By the time Paco strolled up with snorkeling equipment in hand, the rain had receded. Motoring us across the bay, Pace waved his arm toward the horizon roiling with dark clouds. “It’s a beautiful day to be out!” he exclaimed. “Look how calm the water is. And just past those clouds it’s clearing up.”
We snorkeled over the wreck of a sugar cane barge that went down in 1948. The years had turned it into a reef where hundreds of parrot fish, blue tangs, porcupine fish, and black and yellow sergeant majors congregated. Back on board, we watched rhesus monkeys cavorting on land.
“Oh, man, look at them monkeys monkeying around!” Paco laughed.
As he steered us back to the mainland, Paco waxed philosophical. “Do you know what’s the most important thing in the world to learn about?”
We waited.
“Yourself! You got to know who you really are!”
He thumped his chest. “You got to be true to what’s here. If you’re doing what pleases others instead of yourself, you got nothing.”
He tapped his heart again. “You can’t be afraid. Age doesn’t matter. Do what you love!”
Paco’s eyes crinkled at the rolling waters of the Atlantic as he seemed to drink in the energy that nourishes him.
“What a beautiful day! Isn’t Nature outstanding?”
Although Paco steers his boat over the same nautical mile toward the off-shore monkey reserve every day, the trip is a joy for him. He showed us a vivid example of living fully—loving what you do and doing what you love.
Outstanding.
3 comments:
Paco has the wisdom of life within. We each should be so blessed and do well to remember it each day. He is blooming where he is planted, when most of us have to 'get away' to see what we really have. Glad you had a nice time!
This is a fantastic post! Thank you so much for sharing. My fiance and I have gone to Monkey Island on Paco's boat twice. He is an amazingly cool and vibrant individual. I can't wait to repeat that same trip the next time I get to Puerto Rico. It is certainly one of my favorite things in one of my favorite places! ;)
Hey, Vanessa, what fun to meet someone who also has experienced Paco and his Monkey Island adventure.
However did you find this Full Life, Good Death blog post, written almost a year ago?
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