My Aloha

When I close my eyes, I can feel the plane banking on approach to paradise. I see the sugarcane fields, a patchwork quilt of green covering the landscape below. Volcanoes rise to my right and to my left, imposing yet inviting in every possible way. All around me blue crashes against my conscious like a pounding wave, but below, a lush oasis in the vast ocean, my oasis.

I am about to leave myself far, far behind. A transformation takes place during the seconds after touchdown. I exist somewhere between the runway and heaven. I begin to smell the fresh island air. I hear the engines wind down. "Welcome to Maui," I hear the pilot say. Indeed. I have found my aloha again.

As Dino and all the other friendly island natives have maintained, Maui no ka'oi. It's true. I find real theraputic benefit in spooning up red raspberry shave ice from a cup so big it could hold a basketball. Where else can I shake hands with my tattoo artist as he arrives still dripping from the ocean? And trust me, there is no replacement for alliviating road rage with the flip of a shaka sign. Waking early each morning with the sole purpose of padding onto the lanai to watch the sunrise reflect over the ocean or to take a leisurely stroll along plumeria-lined paths is to experience pure bliss. My zen is watching sea turtles swimming strong against the current or perhaps catching a glimpse of a sting ray gliding silently through the depths, like a spector through the night. This is the land of flip-flops and board shorts, where even the most staunchly buttoned-up individual is seduced by sea spray and sun. Here I am convinced to soar down a volcano on a bike, hike through a grove of guava trees, explore the drippy and dark inside of a lava tube with nothing more than my nerve and a flashlight, dip a kayak paddle into the ocean, snorkel inside the crator of a dormant volcano, lose myself and the morning walking among lava rocks, take flight over towering waterfalls and consider the fact that, at least for the moment, adventure and I exist together, as one. Here, I find my inner goddess. Here, on this island, at this moment, I am no longer lost, but found. Here, I experience my true self.

Later, as the plane fades into the distance sky, streaking towards reality, I close my eyes again, this time carefully tucking my love, my Maui, into a secure place within my mind. I may already be transforming, leaving heaven for the earth, but I know that I will forever carry my aloha with me. I might hide it from day-to-day life, protecting that which is sacred, but I can draw from it, using its strength and beauty, always...until the day I return.

Mahalo, Maui. I thank you.