Musing

[written and published from a condominium at Maui Kamaole, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii]

83F predicted again today (up to 89 yesterday), waves much calmer than yesterday's choppy surf, the beach slower to fill as hotel crews clean the previous night's revelry leavings (today's photo taken looking northbound from the start/finish point of my walk . . the shore line off in the distance is Sugar Beach in the right corner, then the bend takes the road by Ma'alaea Bay on its way up the west side of the island to Lahaina); I've found a solution, I think, for walking thanks to multiple bandage shopping excursions to Long's Drugs (the liquor department is twice the size of the pharmacy), running shoe on one foot, sandal on the other . . wounds seem to be healing

if you live in Maui, where do you go on vacation?

I watch local people go about their business; it seems much like at home . . they wash their car, go shopping, go to work, take care of their domestic lives – the very things I will do here as/when I relocate here; while it is interesting for a short while to chat on a beach or at a fish taco stand with someone from Nashville or Chicago or London, the truly interesting chats are with local people; asking questions like ‘what brought you here?’, ‘why did you stay?’, and ‘what could take you away?’ are interesting in their simplicity and similarity, I sense they are so much calmer than before they came here, reluctant to leave behind that special something that is so hard to define yet so easy to feel

this place transcends many things – it seems to be an escape from reality for some, an escape to reality for others; for some it is heaven, for others it seems to be a spiritual stepping stone of some kind

I must get back to the beach for a while today or tomorrow so I can match my front to my back (medium-crimson from yesterday) side . . for an overall boiled lobster look – not that I need boiling water to sear the surface to seal in the juiciness; yesterday’s lay on the beach was interrupted by high winds that brought the sting of flying sand

my mind is calmer than yesterday . . like the waves; yesterday driven by strong winds that put sand in my face along with the spray, today it is warm water swirling around my ankles . . calmer than before, calmer than I remember in a long while

to those who wrote offering extraordinary supportive thoughts – mahalo, but please understand: revisiting someone dear to explore re-connection of our lives meant the results could be anywhere across the spectrum of possibility

the result is the result, it is the whole result, the right result, the only result . . so that is OK; it leaves a sense of profound rightness that overrides disappointment

while something has been lost – left behind in its proper place and perspective I think – something else has been found; I found it here . . a clarity that eluded me for many years seems to have enveloped me now; I doubt that is because I am here as opposed to having the same experience in some other place . . . but I think this place, this sense of place, has played an important role

I’m calmer than before, the water/wind/waves seem to be calmer too

aloha

Mark Kolke
224,664

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