taking notes from nature
If you wake up early enough, you will hear the very first rooster to call us all awake. As you lay with the shutter windows open, the plants and trees are the same sounds of the ocean waves as you drift back into a place you only exist. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you will hear the waves of the greenery stop for long enough to hear the crash of the large waves on the shore, not too far from the lane you stay. Remember this you say to yourself in between slumbers. You used to hate waking up in the middle of the night but it’s easier to accept it now. A waterfall of a storm one night, unlike the shake of water drops in and out almost daily. If you look up and watch the trees, you notice the movement of the smallest parts are the same no matter the tree. It’s fingers waving. The wind being carried. And held. Many trees and plants exist only here within the barrier of miles upon miles of the sea. If you watch how the sunlight and the trees in unison no matter the time, make the same reflection on the houses. Inside and outside. It’s a meditative slow dance you have never seen. And keep looking for it. It’s never quiet. The green sounds, the leaves, the limbs, the roots, the branches are a lullaby of forever. It only lives within this island. We all are islands. Dots in the middle of our ocean. Strings of theories. If you run and get too hot, you can jump in the salt home of the water again. You sit longer on the beach and watch it all as your friend, the sun dries you off, so you run the rest of the way home along the bluest of blue. Everything is slow. Even the people. A very pregnant woman comes up to you and asks if the turtle is real. Walking in ones, or twos, In small groups, The lifeguards and firefighters doing the drills. The waves are calm and rough, anomalies. Against the rocks of the protected place, Swimmers swim across, People float, A turtle's head lifts. Clouds painted similar to water, All the same colors collected into tiny specks in distinct ways. A bird you never have seen before hops up and down, it’s blue head towards you, and then gone again. You say to yourself stay longer. You can stay as long as you want. You have rushed and worried enough for this lifetime. And then a visitor of a very small yellow so vibrant, it glows like a firefly, butterfly will take flight over you. only just once. Happiness sweats out. You start to understand again, you can’t capture this. Look up. Watch. Notice. You write in cursive only legible by you in the notes in your mind -- the transcript of the moments. Asterisk *** these to come back to them again. We are everything. still so small. In something so immense. You later lay on a hammock upcountry from the comfort of the ocean. You have never lived away from water. You aren’t sure if you can. Another yellow butterfly flies over you. Much larger than the last. And you watch it fly. Away slowly. She whispers truths only live in the present. Its only purpose is to fly and be. You aren’t sure what happens next. Stopping at the trees along the way. One by one. But it always works out. It’s a dot within all the colors. You watch, until you can’t see it anymore.
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Please consider your impact before traveling to a place like Maui. Please commit to providing either donations or your time during your visit, and from afar. And commit to letting short term rentals being transitioned into long term housing for residents. Hundreds testify on bill that would phase out half of Maui's short-term rentals | Hawai'i Public Radio I stayed with friends on the North shore + stayed at a retreat center Upcountry.
Below are some programs for food security, farming sustainability, and the Paia’s Youth & Cultural Center along Pā‘ia’s shore (the town I have spent the most time in my visits over the last 10 years). These orgs need your support today and always.
Support Food Security
Support a farm-to-consumer infrastructure that allows farmers & producers to focus on increasing local food production
Support a safe place emotionally and physically for the youth of Pā‘ia and surrounding communities
Follow the Native Hawaiian led initiatives here:
Lāhainā Strong - Rebuilding Maui For The People