The People

Aloha!  It is whale season here in Hawaii and this morning, at The Point, I watched a huge whale fully breech the water, I mean full huge body curved in mid air and come crashing back down.  It was incredible.  The 4 of us there to see it were in full standing and cheering ovation.  Here is a picture of my first Hawaii sunrise from a few days ago from where I saw the whale this morning.

Well as I come to the six week mark of my stay here at Kalani, I am overwhelmed by my new Ohana (extended family).  Everyone comes with a different story from a different place.  There is Jose from New York.  This is his third winter at Kalani.  He comes here to get away from the cold.  Here is he driving for the first time on a real road!  Living in New York, he has never driven before.  I got to be his proud passenger!  He took me a few miles up the road to a nice lava made lookout of the ocean.

There is Julia, Moti, Kerry and Sara all from different areas of the mainland.  Here we are hanging out down at Kehena Beach for the Sunday drum circle.  All have been here for a few months if not longer and come with their own unique story of how they got here.

Kerry, Julia, Moti, me and Sara

Here is Yulia from Austria.  Her and her husband Lucas just finished a one month sabbatical visit here.  Yulia is a returning volunteer.  She wanted to her husband Lucas to see first hand what she learned here.

Yulia

Jules and Lily

Monk Seal

This is Jules and Lily.  We spent the day up in Hilo earlier this week running errands.  We ended our visit at Hilo Bay Park where we saw a baby beached monk seal.  Lily has been around for a couple years.  She is a Chef in the kitchen.  Jules is a midwestern wanderer.  He even lived for a couple years in Oconomowoc, WI when he was 4!  Such a small world sometimes.

Hilo Bay Park

A former volunteer once explained Kalani as relationship bootcamp.  And it really is.  Some people might think running away to Hawaii is avoiding your problems.  I disagree.  When living in community, you are running head on into what your real issues are.  You start to see people as a reflection of you.  You're faced daily with looking at your true self. Some people test you, or rather teach you something about yourself.  Maybe learning how to see things through someone else's eyes.  Or that there are a million ways to complete a task and more then one is right.  Maybe you talk too much.  Or not enough.  Maybe, just maybe, you aren't as patient and grateful as you think.   

These people and many more remind me daily of how many different ways there are to view and live our lives.  I'm constantly inspired by the reminder of how it is about the journey and not the destination.  How to naturally enjoy and appreciate every minute as it is happening in place of the constant worry or anxiety of life's day to day drama's or following social norms.  I'm starting to learn how to live in the present for more than 2 seconds!  I've realized that it was my prayer to get here.  My being here is God's or the universe's response.  To live in that euphoria of I knowing I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be right now is a very safe and comfortable place.  My cup runneth over!

Uncle Roberts

And just like everyone else, every Wednesday we hop the shuttle down to Uncle Robert's to blow of steam.  Uncle Robert's is this funny weekly ritual that pops up out of no where once a week.  It's a cross between a festival/bar/market and local fair.  We get wood-fired pizza's and $2 bottles of wine/beer and enjoy the local music and people.  It's built on an old lava flow that took out Hawaii's most beautiful black sand beach (Coconut Beach) a few years ago.  You can hike a lava tube, watch the sunset and then chill out at Uncle Robert's.  

Well, my friend Trisha is coming to visit on Sunday for 11 days.  We will spend the first 5 here on the Big Island exploring and spending time at Green Sands Beach, hiking a lava tube and in Kona and then fly up to Oahu for the following 6 days including the super bowl!  Trisha has set up many adventures for us on Oahu including a shark dive, surfing and hiking the Stairway to Heaven at night for the sunrise!  You go in at night, watch the sunrise and back down again.  4000 stairs!  It's not exactly "legal" as the trail is closed, but 1000 people do it a year so it's pretty safe. :)  So my next couple weeks will be filled with adventure.  Looking forward to blogging about it!  Aloha until then!  Sending light and love!

Nuturing

When I last left off I was on my way to a Watsu (water massage) appointment.  This kicked off a week full of nurturing.  When you hear the word nurturing, what feelings or thoughts come to mind?  Comfort?  Peace?  Who makes you feel nurtured? Mom?  Friends?  Significant other? When was the last time you remember feeling nurtured?  Synonyms for nurture include advance, cultivate, encourage, forward, further, incubate, nourish, nurse, foster and promote. 

I had no idea what to expect from my Watsu session.   I got into the 4 foot deep, heated to body temperature pool with my Watsu therapist, Paul.  Here is a picture of the pool the day after my session.  (My session was in the evening and it was raining.  There was a tarp above the pool that blocked the rain during my session.  It blew off in the night due to some strong winds.)  Paul put floats on my legs and got me used to laying on my back, breathing in to a count of four and out to a count of four.  Nice even breaths.  Within minutes I was in another place, at peace and completely supported by the water and Paul.  Paul moved me around, stretching every bone, muscle and joint with a very soft, smooth and dancing touch.  Around halfway in, he put a nose plug on the tip of my nose and as we had discussed, as I breathed out of my mouth to a four count he would start to turn me so I would be submerged under water for a little while.  All I can say is that it is amazing how long your body can hold your breath without any stress or strain when at complete relaxation.  We spend the rest of my 90 minute session in and out of submerging sequences. 

At the end, as Paul was bringing me out of my meditative state, he mentioned that many people find Watsu to be very nurturing.  I don't know what happened, but something inside me was triggered by that word.  I was overcome with emotion.  It was the first time I have cried here at Kalani.  Paul warned me prior that sometimes people cry in the pool and to not be surprised by it.  Well, he was right because there I was just bawling in the pool.  Haha.  The session had been very nurturing and I believe I had forgotten what that feels like and how much I missed it.  I should take a minute here to thank all of you (you know who you are) that went out of your way to try and make me feel that way over the past year.  I love you all!

Well, if Watsu wasn't enough, the next day I had a 30 minute appt with a Shakti on energy healing.  (Hey, I'm at a Wellness Retreat, time to move out of vacation mode and jump into why I came!)  The meeting was pretty basic.  We mainly went through a worksheet exercise ranking different areas of my life and then envisioning the feelings around what I want more of in my life and why.  While it was a basic exercise, it's always interesting to have a visual of what you are thinking and to say those words allowed.  I cried again.  Haha.  But that was it.  The only times this week and the first two times in my first full month here! 

Later in the week I attended the Shakti's Meridian Tapping Circle.  We spent the first hour going through an interesting worksheet on how we view and feel about our finances and then tapping out any negative energy.  I'd never been to anything like this before.  It was very interesting and again nice to have a visual worksheet on something like finances that many people, including myself, have difficulty looking at it in a positive light and without stress/anxiety. 

I've also been to 4 yoga classes this week and have gotten down to the Point everyday.  Here are a couple pictures of one of my studios and the front door entrance to the studio overlooking the ocean.  I had a Restorative Yoga class there this morning.  At the end of practice, instead of finishing with the usual "OM", my cute instructor Caroline asked us to sing-along to, as she put it, "the great Prophet, Robert Marley's Three Little Birds".   I broke into big smiles at this.  Such a fun way to start the day...

"Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin': "Don't worry about a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right! "

Rise up this mornin',
Smile with the risin' sun,
Three little birds
Each by my doorstep
Singin' sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin', ("This is my message to you-ou-ou: ")

Singin': "Don't worry 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right."
Singin': "Don't worry (don't worry) 'bout a thing,
'Cause every little thing gonna be all right! "

Finally, I ensured myself some playful nurturing this week too.  I did get out to watch the Packer playoff game last Sunday.  I went snorkeling down at some tide pools near by one day after work.  I also went down to the local open market, bar, band and food mini-festival that erupts every Wednesday night on some local grounds down on the lava rocks a few miles up the road.

So, as I say Aloha for now, I end asking did you feel nurtured this week?  I hope so!!!  I've had some extreme dosages of it lately! :)  Here is the view of the Red Road I cross going to the Point everyday!  Mahalo for reading!!!!

 

Happy New Year!!!

Aloha and Happy New Year!  My past week between the holidays has been spent getting back into a more regular yoga routine, working and doing a little more exploring.  I took 4 yoga classes in 5 days.  The open air studios are so peaceful to practice in.  I enjoy the lower impact classes like Yin Yoga and Restorative.  You spend 3-ish minutes in each pose and can really focus on relaxing the mind as well as the body.  But I'll dedicate a future blog post to the studios and classes later.

As we are in the rainy season here, it was a pretty wet week.  I did do a little adventuring on one of my days off.  I borrowed a car with chef Ted and a few other volunteers this past Monday to run some errands and do a little more exploring of the local area.  Here is Ted and I eating pizza for lunch in the closest town with commerce, Pahoa.  It was my first Coke since I've been here.  It tasted really sweet having not had one in weeks.  I liked it. :) 

Island Naturals Food/Supplies in Pahoa

Pahoa main drag

Pahoa is filled with local businesses, eateries, a few bars, natural health food store, coffee shop and smoke shop.  Here are a few pics to give you an idea of what I mean.  Keep in mind, this is the poorest district of Hawaii.  Many get by on trading goods and services.  

Isaac Hale Park

Isaac Hale Park

When Ted and I were finished running errands we took the scenic route down the Red Road back to Kalani.  The Red Road is a popular tourist drive with many scenic beach, look out and snorkeling stops.  I'm lucky that Kalani is a stop on the Red Road.  All I need to do is walk or hitch a ride in either direction from the Kalani entrance and I have a wealth of beautiful activities.  After we picked up a couple more Kalani friends, Lisa and Kat, we stopped at the store for some wine and beer and got back on the Red Road and went down to Isaac Hale Park to enjoy our cocktails.  Here are a couple pics of the park.

After a little while, a storm started rolling in.  We noticed it as the surfers all got out of the water.  Safe to follow the surfers, they know more about the weather than anyone else.  So the four of us piled back into our ride and went back into Pahoa for a Mexican dinner.  We finished the evening at the local Kava Bar sharing a few bowls.  To all my Fiji friends, it still looks and tastes the same as it did 11 years ago, like drinking hand sanitizer.  Haha  Here are pics from dinner and our Kava nightcap.

Kava Time!

New Years was nice.  I worked early on New Years Eve, so although I made it to midnight, I was asleep by 12:30.  We had a party with a 9 person reggae band.  It was open to the public so I saw a lot of local color.  People dancing in all styles, rhymes and flows  and in all sorts of dress or in very little clothes.  The band was great and everyone had a pretty good time. 

Today is my day off.  If the weather holds out, I'll walk down to the beach.  I have a 4:30 yoga class and an 8pm Watsu water therapy appointment.  Watsu is aquatic bodywork, combining elements of massage, joint mobilisation, shiatsu, muscle stretching and dance.  I'm looking forward to crawling into bed tonight all relaxed and hopefully still feeling like I'm floating in the water.

Well, as the first few posts have been more based around providing an understanding of what my new day to day is like, that may get pretty old for me to type and you to read.  So I'd love to make this more of an open forum.  Feel free to post comments if you have any questions or comments on anything you'd like to know more about and I'll blog some answers.  I'll also look to focus my future posts more on specific topics, i.e. the yoga, the people, the pool/clothing optional areas, how I"m changing/evolving etc.  

Happy 2014 everyone and go Packers in the playoffs this weekend!!!!  Sending light, love and Aloha!