Paradise Lost

It is late in the day and unlike the serenity in the adjacent photo which was taken in Paradise(otherwise known as St. John, U.S.V.I.) the afternoon heat has sparked a few rain showers. Summer is nearing its end and this always seems to bring on a sort of melancholy mood for me. I believe the clinical term for this is
seasonal depression. Although the rain is not helping matters any! So in order to attempt to make myself feel better, I was flipping through photos of my kids. Most of which certainly brought a smile to my face, but then I started to notice how much they have grown. Which of course makes me sad that they are growing so fast and depressed that I am getting O-L-D and now I think I feel even worse than I did in the first place! But I paused to look at this picture which was taken on our last trip to St. John about a year ago. My husband and I were married there in 1998 and it is our favorite place to visit. So...normally...looking at any picture taken there or even one that reminds me of St. John cheers me right up. But not this time of course. For two reasons...(#1) We were married in a beautiful, "eco-friendly" resort on the island called Maho Bay. This is where we usually stay when we visit St. John. We have even taken our children there twice and they love it too! But....in 2011 Maho Bay will close....forever ! The property has been leased for twenty some odd years, the lease expired, and the property owners are selling. And if this isn't just about enough to make me cry...just wait 'til you hear the next part. reason (#2) When we last visited St. John, it was for our 10th wedding anniversary. And the night that we celebrated this, my husband surprised me with sunset dinner reservations to the same restaurant where we dined on our wedding night appropriately named Paradiso. Only this time ...we had our children with us and it was very special, as you can probably imagine! Well.....my husband usually finds it sort of difficult to do anything considered to be "romantic". But on this occasion....he went all out! He really surprised me after we had finished our meal by having one of our children hand me a card and the other one placed a small box on the table in front of me. When I opened the box, I found it contained a gorgeous platinum anniversary ring encrusted with beautiful ,colored sapphire stones. I never knew that sapphires came in all the colors of the rainbow! This was truly many-a-woman's dream come true. A week in paradise with prince charming, angelic children and JEWELS to boot!!! Here's the sickening part....the reason that I couldn't smile today when I happened to see the picture of my Paradise staring back at me from my computer....About a week ago.....I lost the ring!!! That's right!.....LOST it . Don't have the faintest clue where. Can't remember the last place that I might have taken it off. Have searched high and low and....no ring! And yes....then...came the real fun part.... I had to T_E_L_L my husband that I lost the ring. He was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. Probably because he could see how sick I was over it. UGH!!!!
So... for now, I can only hope and pray that my ring will eventually miraculously appear, and with any luck maybe Oprah or someone will buy the property at Maho Bay and keep my favorite spot in paradise from being lost too! Atleast it looks like the rain has stopped and the sun is coming back out.

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY
And He said to him, "I assure you:
Today you will be with Me in paradise."
LUKE 23: 43