A Beacon of Light

“They dress up every Sunday and go to church,and the pastorsmake them feel loved.”The Nassau Tribune While this could be an accurate statement of a Catholic parish in the Santa Clara Valley, I can think of very few to which it would apply. Pastors make them feel loved? Generally speaking, this has not been my experience…

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Helen Keller Prior to my visit to Nassau in March 2025, a friend warned me that the United States had issued a travel advisory for The Bahamas, stating that Americans were at risk of becoming victims of violence and crime. I considered that advisory… for about three seconds.…

“Bay Street is emblematic of Nassau as a whole.”  Bahamas Air Tours Bay Street is downtown Nassau. Lined on both sides of the street with a few large stores, many small shops, and a few places to grab a bite to eat, it is ground zero for Bahamian culture. It wakes up in the morning when…

“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I know that there is a forecast of rain for Nassau, but not until next week. The rain that began to fall at 6:15 this evening was not predicted on my weather app. So… I took a late afternoon walk down…

Wednesday, March 11, 2026 I caught a late-night flight out of San José last night, arriving in Atlanta around 6:00 this morning. From there, I boarded my flight to Nassau, which departed Atlanta at 9:30 and arrived in The Bahamas around noon time. The line to get through Bahamian Immigration was long, but it moved…

“All my bags are packed I’m ready to go.” John Denver Tonight is the start of another trip to The Bahamas. It is also the beginning of the end of a long, wonderful journey. For more than fifty years, I’ve cherished the memories of my students and colleagues from Saint Augustine’s College in Nassau in my mind…

“Cousins by blood,friends by choice.”Darlene Shaw As a child, “the cousins getting together” meant that my brother, sisters, and I were getting together with either our Kelly cousins from my Mom’s side of the family, there are six of them, or my cousin Dan, my only first-cousin on my Dad’s side. Whichever was the case,…

“Life is like a rollof toilet paper.The closer you getto the end,the faster it goes.”Andy Rooney When I graduated from high school in 1972, my entire adult life was ahead of me. I had no idea, at that time, that things would turn out as they have. I wasn’t a goal-setter. I wasn’t working on…

“You only need to standnear the ocean to feel thepower of the universeand a closeness to theone who created it.” Susan Gale The prophetic words of Jacques Cousteau have proven to be true throughout my lifetime. He said, “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” It most certainly…