Maui – Day 2 – Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like “whoa”, and we were like “whoa”, and you were like “whoa…”

First full day in Maui… set off for the beach and got sidetracked by New Hope church in Wailaku.  Great service, really very different from the UK.  We even broke in the middle for breakfast.  Now THAT’S what I call ‘breaking bread’.

It turns out that the hostel is in the shadow of two huge volcanic peaks of Maui Komohana, often wreathed in cloud and the occasional rainfall…

Once I finally got going, hopped a couple of buses to the old whaling town of Lahaina in search of sea and the beach.

Unfortunately, due to a huge planning error I had forgotten my goggles.  So I just had to hire instead (what, miss an opportunity?). Had a wonderful half hour watching the fish on the reef while trying to avoid getting dive bombed by kids jumping off the cliff.  Once I’d tired of that I sat around on the beach for a bit, soaking up a few rays, before deciding to have one last swim before heading home.  Which was one of the best decisions EVER.  Was just testing out how fast I could swim in flippers when I had to throw the swim into reverse as I nearly collided with two majestic honu, the green sea turtle.

Last time I’d met one of these guys the water was murky and I lost him pretty quickly.. but this time the water was clear and we swam together for at least half an hour, just swimming around, following, .. I just felt incredible calm and at peace…as if I was in the presence of something incredibly old and wise, a being that was completely at peace being itself.  Eventually I had to tear myself away from the connection with my new friends and return my snorkel…

And to end what seemed like a perfect day, dinner (yes, my budget includes one dinner out a week!) as the sun went down over the harbour at Aloha Mixed Plates (a tradition from the days when the Polynesians, Chinese, Japanese and anyone else who was around shared their lunch… although it’s now settled down into rice, macaroni salad and protein of some form.

A mad dash to catch the last bus to Wailuku… and time to write this.

PS in case you were wondering… the quote is from ‘Finding Nemo’ – Crush the turtle commenting on Marlin’s escapade with the jellyfish (apparently there were some portuguese men’o’war in the area but fortunately not on my bit of beach!

Huna

Aloha – Love is to be happy with.

There are so many applications of this – but really, all of our reactions come out of only two places – love, or fear.  When we come from love we move forward, we open up, we expand.  When we come from fear we close up, contract.  It’s our choice whether we love what is happening – accept it, allow it, rather than fight it.  Our huna teacher has a saying ‘Everything is Working Out Perfectly’ (EWOP)…

And so with people – do we choose to be happy with who someone is, or do we look for the things that are ‘wrong’.  It’s been demonstrated that rather than criticising what’s wrong (or give feedback on what didn’t go right), if we praise what people get right then they do more of that… and less of the rest.

And since our ku (unconscious mind, if you like) doesn’t know the difference between an external event and an internal event, then it tends to take all criticism personally anyway.  So why not spread a little more ‘aloha’ around today??

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