Mother's Day was grand.  I won't tell you what the weather is because it might just piss you off.  All I'll say is that my friend who lived here used to say, "The weather is perfect 362 days of the year, it is the other 3 that will kill ya."  Let's just say there has been no danger as of yet.

I started the day swimming laps at 7:30 for 1/2 an hour.  What a treat.  Nothing like swimming with actual sunlight streaming through the water.  Although the pool isn't really long enough for good laps (kind of like running a marathon on the track at an elementary school), it was warm, peaceful and surrounded by palm trees.  Done and done.

For Mother's Day, Mom Cook wanted all of her children to go to mass together.  We all hustled in our island Sunday best down to the one Catholic church on the island.  Apparently we've taken to Island Life a bit too well, because Parker went to church barefoot and had to be held the entire time.

I wish you all could have been there.  The church is very plain on the Catholic scale - cement building with wooden pews and a painted mural of angels at the alter (a podium), but it had to be the grandest mass I have ever attended.

I knew that the Caribbean culture was joyful, with loud singing, clapping and dancing, in their prayer, but for some reason I thought that this did not apply to Catholics.  I was so very wrong.

When we got to the mass, the church was about full.  The "band" was in the balcony - a man with Down Syndrome playing the bongos, a woman playing the wooden sticks and another woman singing.  No choir, no organ, no practice starts.  About 1/3 of the congregation was clapping and singing, but that was not enough.

"Merci, merci, merci! We need to sing some'ting EVERYBAHDY can sing! What yah all want to sing?"  This was the priest.

So, they all started again, this time a song that clearly they had sung many times, and EVERYONE sang.  They clapped and they swayed and some even danced a little bit.  This was how the mass went.  There were the regular prayers and traditions of the Catholic mass, but it

was all done with supreme joy.  I wish I could recount it all, but these are the things that stuck out the most:

1. It was Pentecost Sunday, the birth of the church.  The mass was all about celebrating Mother's Day and Pentecost together - by thanking all women because they give life, give birth to creation.  At the end

of the mass, he declared that all women, for just that day, under his power, were Saints.

2. The priest referenced THE MATRIX in his Homily.  "Just as there is no spoon, there is no box," was the quote as he was talking about how our fears and our unwillingness to be joyful kept us locked up.

3.  The mass was 1 1/2 hours long and none of us noticed.

4. John Cook laughed and actually SANG in the mass!

"Cel-ah-bration, Grah-ti-tude and H-oh-pe!" has been the battle cry of our trip after that mass and his words.  I was so very grateful for such a wonderful spiritual experience on Mother's Day.

After that, the parent's of the bride and groom had a meeting brunch, and the rest of us went grocery shopping, then back to the house to make food.  Groceries are CRAZY expensive here.  The cheapest produce was the kiwi at $.79 a piece (they're 5 for $1 at home.)  Bananas $1.29 a pound ($.69 a pound at home) and they grow here!!  $300 later, we were done shopping.

We spent time at the pool, then took the family to Trunk Bay for snorkeling.  Yeah, it looks exactly like this.  Brian and I were the only ones ever to snorkel, so we were leading a little primer for all the aunts and uncles.  For Mother's Day, Bri gave me unlimited snorkeling time, while he watched the girls on the beach.  The most exciting sighting was a manta ray that everyone got to see, and was amazed by. They are all totally hooked on the sport... except for maybe Emily who yesterday freaked out in a kayak when there were 3 sea turtles around her. Apparently she thinks they travel in gangs, looking to hijack boats.

Dinner was made by us all, and included a locally grown pumpkin and some mystery vegetable that Emily and I decided needed to be cooked au gratin.  It was awesome!  We still don't know what it was.

Then Dan, Em, Bri and I stayed up til about 11:30 while everyone else went to bed.  We got real crazy like and talked about food and religion.  We're livin la vida loca!