Oh friend, understand:
The body
is like the ocean
rich with hidden treasures.
Open your inmost chamber and light its lamp.
Within the body are gardens,
rare flowers, peacocks, the inner music;
within the body a lake of bliss,
on it, the white soul-swans take their joy.
Mirabai
Tags: Quoting
Hello friends! We’re back in Hawaii (at least virtually) and a tranquil day on Waimea Bay. During the winter, this is literally the center of the Surfing Universe, with waves reaching up to forty feet!
White, very white.
I’m snorkeling in Shark’s Cove. What a delight to have the undersea world opened up to me. There were hundreds of beautiful fish!
Though new to the sport, the hubster is very serious about snorkeling.
Despite the simplistic nature of snorkeling, it made us super hungry. Something about being tossed around by the sea, I suppose. These shrimp shacks line the north coast along the Windward Shore, near where the shrimp is harvested. This particular shack was run by three adorable local teens who were equally comfortable speaking Japanese or English, very cool. We had finger licking good garlic butter and spicy garlic butter shrimp, served with rice, of course. Double yum.
The view from La’ie point. The large hole in the island was caused by a tsunami literally punching through it in 1946. Thankfully we missed out on activity of this variety.
We still got to see some pretty serious waves and beautiful blue water.
Happy haolies.
Kahana Bay
Driving to Yokohama Bay on the Waianaie coast.
More snorkeling!
Yokohama Bay – the end of the road. Oh what an end…
I love a good surprise of a film. When we got this one in the mail we, quite frankly, were a little worried. A killer with Alzheimer’s? This can’t be good. Why did I even put it in the queue? Besides, we’d been on a Mad Men Season Three spree (one more DVD to go!) and weren’t terribly keen on breaking up the flow, but, reluctant as we were, we did, and boy were we ever glad. This is a fantastic film.
The story follows two men on very different sides of the law. One, a cop who cannot let go of a particular case involving a young girl, and the other, a professional hit man. Each man is damaged and worn in his own way. Vincke (the police officer) is obsessed by work and a great loss, and Ledda by the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s and a past he thought he left behind. The two men’s lives intersect when they both find themselves working on the same case. Vincke wants to bring the criminals to justice, while Ledda prefers them dead.
It is a race to the finish, as Ledda, with a clear lead over the police, leaves them clues and calls them out on their slowness. It is an expertly written and well acted story. Full of moral ambiguity, surprises, twists, and odd bits of humor, this film was a worthy pause in the Mad Men frenzy.
Tags: Movies
Goodness is the only investment that never fails.
Today is Earth Day. Be good to yourself and the Earth. You can’t go wrong.
Tags: Quoting
Here is the utterly divine reason for my absence from the blog. Hawaii! We went for just under a week and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. We’d been meaning to go for quite some time, but didn’t actually decide on it until after my surgery. I was at one of my check-ups when my sweet specialist Liz poked her head out the door and asked an assistant to grab her prescription pad. My heart sank. I thought I was doing so well and was already chock full of drugs, so I had no desire to add another to the list. Much to my delight, she handed me a prescription that read: Tropical Vacation. You’ve earned it!
I got home, showed it to the hubster, and we cried a little thinking about how hard a life with endometriosis can be. We also thought about the summer we missed post-surgery. We didn’t get to ride bikes together, garden, play in the sun, go to the fair, or even feel normal until we were well into fall. So began our plans. We’d have our summer in spring! Oh what a summer it was!
These are all pictures taken from where we stayed on Maili Point. We rented a small cottage that was steps from the beach and firmly rooted in paradise. From this spot we watched boats of all kinds, surfers, paddlers, snorkelers, spear fishermen, whales, and sea turtles (Oh my!). I really don’t think it could have been better. The funny bit about it is that when we told the woman who inspected our rental car where we were staying, she could not have been more worried. Waianae (Why-Nigh), you’re going to Waianae? Yes. She frowned, shook her head, took out a map, circled the area, followed that with a giant X, and the word NO. Well sheesh lady, it’s too late now. We’re going. And so we went. Aside from the heart palpitations I had from her fear, we had absolutely no problems, though we did have warmer, drier weather than the rest of the island and all the aforementioned delights. We did see some homeless camps, and a couple of them were really big and quite permanent, but mostly the area reminded us of Southeast Portland: a good mix of people, some with money, some with none, but all living Aloha.
We were treated to glorious sunsets every single day. As our friend Kelly would say, “That’s why it’s paradise!” We had a brilliantly beautiful night sky, too, with Venus just above the horizon, and stars, so many stars!
The cute cottage. The flowers are plumeria and smell like paradise.
Our sleeping quarters – I put a vase of plumeria flowers next to the bed for sweet slumber.
The living room. We moved the coffee table and practiced yoga in the morning. Nothing like stretching to the sound of crashing surf.
Eat here.
Staring at the Sea. Also a great album by The Cure.
We made a concerted effort to buy everything from locals and look goofy while preparing them. Aside from the milk, yogurt (Nancy’s from Oregon!), cereal, and peanuts, we ate Hawaiian. I’m making Kalua pork (bought in a package – I didn’t have the time or inclination to roast an entire pig underground) with cabbage and pineapple. It was yummy. We also liked the Pipi Kaula.
A view from our hammock. Hammocks are good.
Another view from the hammock. Palm leaves blowing in the breeze sound like rain falling and home.
I saw so many ladies with flowers tucked behind their ears that I could not help but join the crowd and squint happily!
The handsome hubster. My favorite haolie boy.
Tags: Traveling
