Lighthouse Dreams: A Once of a Lifetime Summer Experience with Hamida Merchant
What does one do when the humdrum and daily chores of life seems to magnify in one’s head and become bigger than life itself? When this pandemic creates a depressive state of mind? How does one give themselves a ‘reality check’ and come to be one with nature and self? What does it take to bring out the poetic side of the otherwise very practical self? And when you put a wish out in the universe, does the universe really work to make it come true?
Living in a Lighthouse: Hamida shares this adventure with us below
1. Why did you want to live in a lighthouse for your vacation? What inspired you to go there?
This was a surprise arranged by a friend. In all honesty, I would never have been able to set up something like this on my own with my limited resources as a single mom. The inspiration was not necessarily to visit a lighthouse but was to escape the depressive state of mind created by the pandemic that we are living in.
New England Summers are so fleeting in nature and it was breaking my heart to watch the seasons change while my life seemed to be stuck in a different dimension. I threw out a wish to the universe to take me away from this reality and the lighthouse just manifested itself. I know it sounds very cheesy, but it’s the way it happened.
2. What was a “day in the life of Hamida living in a lighthouse” like?
The days were much longer than what “regular” days feel like. Every minute seemed to stretch in my mind. Time, as a measure of minutes and hours did not exist for those two days. The only awareness was the presence, the intensity and then the slow disappearance of light. The sky was either full of the glorious sun playing hide and seek with the clouds or felt like a magical carpet of celestial bodies at night. I saw the Milky Way while I was there and realized how my existence is smaller than a speck of dust in the big scheme of things.
For the first time in my life I had no interest in food as my soul just seemed to be nourished with the sound of the ocean hitting the rocks. I know I might sound like a really bad poet at this point.
3. What are some of your favorite New England summer outdoor spots?
I am an avid hiker so I love being up in the mountains but being a big city girl at heart from Bombay, I cannot stay away from civilization for long. New England has really beautiful towns and there are so many to choose from but Bar Harbor, Maine and Portsmouth, New Hampshire along with Newport, Rhode Island would be my top three favorites. I fell in love with Camden Maine as well during this trip.
