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| Frangipani, used in Hawaii to make Leis of Welcome |
A couple of days ago there was an article in our local paper, the St. Croix Avis, about a group of 20 Cuban refugees who had barely survived the dangerous passage from their island to our island of St. Croix. As I read the article, I was surprised that anybody would choose this direction & distance as a path of escape. The youngest refugee was 15 years old. He came with his mother, who was seeking a place where she could speak and live freely. She wanted better for her son.
It is not a new story. Some of the details surprised me though.
For instance, one of the group was a 31 year old IT guy. In his case, his father had urged him to go. And I started thinking about why people make long, risky treks in search of something different.
This group was seeking escape from external conditions over which they had no control. Others of us had different motivations.
For many of us who had what would typically be considered a stable, if not enviable life in the continental US, close relatives & safe jobs, the reasons aren't that clear to the observer. Personally I was running to, not away from something. Instead of a shot at a better life, I was looking to St. Croix as a place to find my better self. I wanted my life to mean more than traffic & paperwork & taxes & conspicuous consumption, because those were the pivot points it hinged on at the time. At least once a week I wondered why quiet desperation seemed so damn loud in my head.
It turned out the silencer was to leave dry land completely, floating in the edge of the Caribbean Sea. A bonus was the fact our soil grows a huge array of plants, & since that is my other mental balm, I found exactly what I sought. 
But back to the real refugees. They are being temporarily housed in a local High School, & the Red Cross is attending to their basic needs. Since they made it to land, they will be allowed to stay on our Island & the agents from Customs & Border Protection spent a few days sorting that out with each arrival. And then they ran out of bureaucracy to occupy their time.
So on Friday they went to our Botanical Garden. There they found someone who spoke Spanish and beautiful grounds with no doubt familiar plants. They got to relax & wander & start to recover from their journey.
I hope they found the two things long distance travelers usually seek: refuge & hope.
Pictures my symbols of hope: Plantains in Progress (above) & Pomegranates (below)
