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!