Thanksgiving

November 28, 2019……I’ve delayed writing this last entry sharing my memories and reflections because….I don’t know. It isn’t a feeling of letting go of my adventure for it to become part of my history and my memorializing one of the best trips I’ve ever taken or been on. It isn’t avoiding signing the separation “papers” ending my relationship with one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to. Maybe it’s that I’m still there in some way and the idea of a last entry seemed and seems like an ending, turning the page to a new chapter of planning and dreaming.

I listen to Weldon Kekauoha on my walks. His ballads in the Hawaiian language take me back to any day of the 4 and a half months spent there. Not a day was a disappointment. Whether I was hiking, on a town walk about or an island drive around, exploring the life folks in Hawaii live or just sitting on any beach not a day went by or goes by still that I cherish being in a feeling of aloha, a special way of life to me. I’m not homesick because I am home with my family and friends but do feel my heart is in both places, here and there.

I am thankful for many things and to many people. My family and friends for coming to spend time with me on the islands, especially thankful for my sisters thoughtful reminders over the years to take this journey, I’m glad she was able to share her vacation with me on the Big Island. I’m happy too that our brother Fin and his wife Joyce (more sister to us for over 50 years!) made the trip. To my niece Jen, nephews PJ, Dave and Dan their partners Jamie, Anne and Maureen. My special cousin Laura and her fiance Eric tripping around Big Island places. My buddy Patrick and Gussy, his wife, and our sharing 2 weeks together exploring Honolulu and O’ahu. I have happy memories of all of our times together.

Starting out Good Friday morning and my trip to BWI, Patrick drops me off just after 7 a.m. where I will then start off on 3 separate flights to land in Honolulu after 8 p.m. Hawaiian time (2 a.m. the next day on the East Coast). Once settled into my place in Makaha I spend 4 weeks in O’ahu. This is followed by 9 and a half weeks on the Big Island and the first of my visitors arriving for Memorial Day weekend. Jen, Dan and Maureen are followed by Sharon during King Kamehameha Day in June with a 4 week in between until Laura and Eric arrive mid July. From their leaving I share Big Island time with Fin and Joyce along with Dave and Anne. Fin, Joyce and I take a short hop to Maui where I’ll meet up with Patrick after dropping them off at Kahului Airport. Patrick and I spend a few days driving about and above the clouds to the top of Haleakala one day and on the winding Hana Highway to find Hamoa Beach’s beautiful clear blue water and uncontrolled surf…fun. Patrick go on to Honolulu where we’re soon joined by Gussy and the 3 of us split our 12 days between the city and the North Shore’s Turtle Bay. Leaving the airport to return to the North Shore and Sharks Cove to spend time with PJ, Jamie and their 3 month old baby Jack. I say goodbye Saturday August 17th flying on to Kaua’i, the most beautiful place, for 2 weeks. Princeville and Kapaa, sunsets and hikes. Too many places too little time. I miss it. All of it!

The many memories, a list shortened for time not by choosing one over another, ranking and comparing islands or places, they all have a personality uniquely their own.

First, though it may seem silly, I miss the fresh fruit. I can’t say enough about how delicious the tastes are when ready to pick and harvest tropical fruit reaches the markets. It is unfair of me, I think, to compare what I buy on the East Coast so far away from the orchards and fields that the mango is not dropping from the branch when ripe but pulled from it’s stem while still growing, there is a huge difference in flavor now that I’ve experienced it.

Then in no order: the changing blue skies and ocean. Every day and in the same day. I could and did sit for hours watching and enjoying both. Roosters and chickens are everywhere and are oblivious to traffic and time. Plopped down in the middle of a narrow lane unwilling to get out of the way or crowing at 3 o’clock in the morning. Swimming and relaxing in the Pacific. The water is refreshing and salty, I’m not a floater but for my guests who were they seemed to just let go and be taken by the movement of the surf. I found that if I did relax and let myself be moved about it became a tranquilizing experience. The people generally were friendly and kind especially the drivers who I found considerate and patient. Aggressive driving I experience here at home seemed a rare moment to me even around Honolulu. Saying more about the attitude of the island and what may sound cliched – “Island Life” there is a spirit of aloha as it was defined to me as being about kindness and good wishes. When I first arrived over those early weeks I thought that the folks of O’ahu were clueless and unaware of what is happening in the world and our country outside of the middle of the Pacific but on return after 19 weeks living there the stress I felt here back home was intense. No wonder folks drive aggressively, yell at anyone, are impatient, don’t seem to have time to practice kindness. My experience of Hawaii was truly like living in a different world and time. (Soon after coming home I had my annual physical with a better report than the one last year so that says something I think.) My walk abouts in Honolulu neighborhoods brought back memories of my time spent with the Army on the island of Okinawa. Narrow streets, small lots, houses tucked into hillsides. The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, a national cemetery located at Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, reminded me of a similar memorial I visited in Manila during those same years. And of the Philippine Islands, Hawai’s mountains and sugar cane fields brought back a few of those memories.

Places: Akaka Falls, Hilo, Hana, Lahaina, Honolulu, Makaha, Diamond Head Crater, Mama’s Fish House, Haleakala, the top of Mauna Kea, Mauna Kea beach, Waimea, Kailua-Kona, Ocean View, Volcanoes National Park, Princeville, Kapaa, Waimea Canyon, Hideaway Beach, Lydgate Beach Park, Sunset Beach, Wailea, Kihei, Hawi, Tropical Botanical Garden, Black Sand Beach, Green Sand Beach, South Point, Red Sand Beach, Magic Sands Beach, Kamaole Beach, Two Step, Hoomaluhia Gardens, Hanauma Bay, Waimanalo Beach, Kokololio Beach, Waimea Falls, Pupukea Trail and my lost adventure, Aiea Loop Trail, Ka’ena Point, Haleiwa Town, Captain Cook……every place a fond memory.

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You may have heard that aloha means both “hello” and “goodbye.” But the literal meaning is even more beautiful than that. “Alo” means “presence,” while “ha” means “breath.” So, the literal meaning of “aloha” is the “presence of breath” or the “breath of life.” In this way, to greet someone with the word “aloha” is as though you’re welcoming their life, whatever that may be. The nonjudgemental respect that it represents is very much something of the Hawaiian culture: a compassionate and carefree island lifestyle that invites you to be you.