Hawaii (Week one)

I never get used to the natural beauty of Hawaii.  Each time I return, it is like observing it for the first time.   Hawaii must have magical powers of sorts that renders everyone in the present moment, it's like falling in love.  Everything is just awesome, food taste better, flowers are more vivid, and the sea is an indescribable blue.

It is always a treat to stay in Honolulu for a few days and take in the many tourist type activities, like touring the island and taking in some of the water excursions.  But then the real beauty is away from the hustle of Waikiki and a trip to one of the other islands is in order.

The island of choice this trip is Kauai.  Kauai has spectacular and rugged beauty of Na Pali, the Waimea Canyon, and of course there are nice sandy beaches too.

Living room in our rented house

This is our 2nd day in Kauai, we rented a beautiful house in Princeville.  The house sits on a buff over looking the sea.  All the window slide open, allowing the warm trade winds to breeze throughout the house.  What an amazing house, it has everything including a fully stock kitchen.

the private beach (Sealodge) below our house

The children explored the grounds surrounding the house and down to the sea.  They report that the beach is quite rocky and rough.    So today we went in search of a more suitable beach.  After a wonderful lunch, we drove to Lumahi, Makua (Tunnels), and Ke e Beach.  We decided on the first beach, Lumahi.

What impressed me the most about island living is everything and everyone moves in slow motion, it is not if you are going to relax, but how soon will you adapt to the island's rhythm.  As the stress is washed out to the sea by the surf, we watch the sunset.

It's in the Soil I'm sure!

The biggest zucchini I've ever seen, and it came from my garden.  I baked it into the most tasty zucchini bread that unfortunately, didn't last long enough to be photographed.   

It's Hot, but I like it!

In the dead of winter, when it is freezing, I will fondly remember this ever so hot summer.

Heatwave!!!

What do you do when it is so hot it feels like the weight of the world on your chest? Well, what about kayaking? Nothing cools you like going down to the river to feel the cool breeze off the water. And the best part is there are no bugs!!!

We are so fortunate to live on the river, and each day (I lie. When I take a moment from my busy schedule) I give gratitude for my magnificent life.

Yesterday, I started a new blog! It is a simple blog about my plan to get fit and stay healthy using Ayurveda's 5 thousand year old health strategies for balancing the mind and body.

25 Second Shake

Yesterday, June 23, at 1:46 p.m., the earth moved beneath my feet for 25 seconds! It never occurred to me I would be in an earthquake when after lunch I decided to work from home and was sitting at my computer in my kitchen. Suddenly my house started to vibrate gently at first, then more violently. Accompanying the vibration was a loud noise that sounded like a big tractor directly outside my widow. Bloody hell, it was more like it was in the kitchen, really. I knew instinctively that it was an earthquake because I experienced my first earthquake a few years ago when I first moved here. But our mind at first does not want to accept this, and instead I thought it must be construction outside.

When I accepted that it MUST be an earthquake, my first thought was what should I do? Stay put, drop, cover, and hang on, or go outside? I decided to stay put (at the computer) but when everything is quaking twenty-five seconds can seem like eternity. Within seconds twitter was a buzz about the quake, knowing that I was not alone made me feel better. A shared experience can bring people together no matter how far apart they physically may be.

For years I’ve had a recurring dream about being in an earthquake. The earth opening up and me falling into it(what was missing in my dreams is the loud sound coming from beneath the earth during actual earthquakes).

The interesting thing is now that I live in an earthquake zone and certainly expect that in all likelihood the earth will shake my house again at some point, I no longer experience earthquake dreams. My dreams since moving here are about being under water, but there is no chance of this happening because we live at least 20 feet above the river. Where do these dreams come from anyways???

Who's There!!!

(This is not my video, but it is from somewhere in Ontario)

A few weeks ago my maintenance guy told me he found a couple of muskrats, a wild turkey, and numerous birds on the property completely cleaned. “I think you have a predator living on the property,” he finally says. My mind immediately jumps to maybe it is vampires? I imagine I have too much Twilight and TrueBlood on the brain to think clearly having witnessed the carnage on the property.

Today, he said he found a porcupine totally gutted. That is a big clue. Who can kill a porcupine without getting quills all over their face...a fisher, that's who.

When you live in the country one assumes there are things out there at night keeping the balance of nature. But there is something a little unnerving about a carnivore ripping apart little animals just a few feet from the front steps… even if it is a cute fisher!

Oprah is human, not an Icon!

Oprah represents all of us who have a dream, but what sets her apart from most of us is her tenacity and perseverance (Not to mention, she is rich beyond our wildest dreams). She never gives up until her dream becomes reality, and then she dreams some more…

In my head, I am Oprah’s best friend and like all friends we’ve have our disagreements. I’ve composed long letters in my head to her setting out my reasons for disagreeing with her and hopefully compelling her to see it from my point of view. For example, I had some serious concerns with how she was setting up her school for girls in South Africa. In particular, taking children from their families to give them "a better life" without any regard for their culture smacks too much like how the the residential schools in Canada were managed by the church.

Our serious conversations (in my head) are most often about how the boundaries between her public life and personal life are blurred. And as she becomes more isolated the two become one leaving little room for her to be her “authentic self” and who to trust becomes increasingly difficult.

Along comes Kitty Kelly Unauthorized Oprah Biographer. (interview with Matt Lauer and Erica Jong, Oprah, Kitty and Me)

I read the book, and by-in-large feel that Kelly did a balance job of writing about Oprah’s life in spite of the difficulty in getting sources. However, Kelly writes mostly the tantalizing and sensational bits of Oprah’s life, which are dated before Oprah became “Oprah”. Maybe that’s what she thinks sells, but it does not make a great book.

The argument biographers have in supporting writing about someone, especially if it is unauthorized, is that this person is in the “public” and the public has the right to know. I think this premise is wrong. I really don’t care if she (Oprah) had a tremulous and rebellious teenage phase, who hasn’t. Indeed, fragments of our past does not create a clear picture of who we are in the present.

I would much prefer to read an authorized biography than an unauthorized one for exactly the reason that it is their life and it is up to them what they want shared publicly. It is no wonder Oprah has to go to extremes to keep her life private. And in my head it will always be just Oprah and me, can't get much more private than that. We only have one life and she, my best friend (in my head), Oprah, is living her life, which needs no apology.