Guest Post: Live with intention by Stephanie Xavier

Those were the only words that seemed to cross my mind on that dark, gloomy day when PACIFIC XPRESS was on hurricane alert. I’ve always believed that no one ever truly knows what someone goes through, unless it’s them going through it and I’ve come to appreciate that in life reality is the hardest thing to understand and often the thing that takes the longest to realize... 

The vessel was bound for Puerto Quetzal and for a man who usually has much to say, my dad was awkwardly quiet that day. Something was definitely wrong. My mum and I having never experienced such a predicament didn’t know what to expect, and so we held on for dear life hoping it would end soon. Hurricane Carlotta was approximately 170N/Miles away from the ship and although in relative terms the distance between the two seemed pretty far, in actual fact the effects of it were being felt from where we were.

The wind speeds picked up, the waves kept crashing and with time the ship found it almost impossible to cut through the ocean. As each minute passed by I couldn’t help but wonder how other seafarers deal with knowing that their life is constantly at risk.
 
Divine providence has always been a very important part of our lives, in fact I guess the only reason we’ve survived for this long is simply because of it. On that frightful day, while my dad was praying he got a message saying that by eleven o’clock the wind speeds would die down and he would be able to berth the ship without any problems.