The Unbearable Rightness of Being

Sunday morning in the jungle still underneath the silk sheets and Canadian goose-down comforter! Strangely enough it gets cold at night. The shack is all windows & besides, who would want to close off all those intoxicating night bloomers from reaching their nostrils while in a hypnopompic sleep? An unbearable rightness of being as I call it.

This full moon phase was amazing. What good fortune to have the full moon fall on the celebration of  my birth- unbearable rightness of being indeed! I was in various spots on the northeast shore to gaze intently at it during sunrise, watching the moon gain momentum and fall into the oceanic depths, as well as the moonrise coming over the ocean from the east as in this picture above from my friend's property down country Tuesday evening. I was driving to work Wednesday early morning & this is what I viewed:

The sight blew me away. What a sweet morning surf those guys had out in the water. Nuts indeed!

Speaking of nuts...                                                              COCONUTS!!! Cocos nuciferas  

... and lots of them. A big harvest wend down on the property this week. So beautiful & full of goodness. Who can resist. I love to hold them up to my lips and drink and feel all that fabulous liquid spilling down. One can't help but smile when watching people drink coconut water. It is amazing to eat and drink from plants that need no help or intervention from humanity- how rare is that? VERY. Another unbearable rightness of being... le gran sigh...

This morning finds the property abuzz as well. It is a celebration of Sagittarians as well as the return of some previous home dwellers that journeyed afar- and then found themselves back on Maui again! How often does this happen? OFTEN. Something about this place; it's hard to leave, it's easy to return to. Bittersweet island home...

So the land has been tended to & manicured into a brilliant display of humanity learning to live to the pulse of the jungle. The caretaker of the land is leading an inipi, or sweat lodge, ceremony this morning to mark the occasions.

... Ok, 5 hours & a loss of 5 lb. of water weight later... Wow! That was intense. Four luscious rounds of sweating, or more like purifying. There was probably 14 of us in total. I intended to only stay for 2 rounds as I wanted to finish my schoolwork but within the last few weeks this monster has taken up residence underneath my left scapula (shoulder blade), and it seemed to be dissipating a bit while in the inipi so I decided to stay. I had never been to a lodge where we didn't come outside after each round and the door was open so wasn't sure if I was going to handle it well, but amazingly so I did.

I have purified myself. I have purged myself. I went through something in there. I always do. It was like being outside my body in a sense and watching the layers of sludge being sloughed off and realizing a shiny new armor was awaiting my return so I gleefully just popped back in! I had time to think about people that were close to me that have left this world & went onto/into another plane of existence. At one point I envisioned my father, my brother, and my kitty kat all next to me just observing me (I giggle that I am still so scientific while experiencing something so abstract & esoteric!).

The rest of the day went smoothly as we came out of the lodge nearly 3pm. We just all slumped onto our towels on the grass atop the knoll overlooking the valleys below and the ocean in the distance. The swell is increasing in size so much that the ocean currents carried their nutrients through the air. The fire was still going strong, and as the skies were overcast (no rain- Yay!) it felt fantastic to have the warmth hit my still slowly quivering body. Yes I must say that I feel ripe with good intentions and a sense of balance after so much stress from the semester. It slowly continued to dissipate the rest of the afternoon and into the evening.

I rehydrated, I ate a meal of quinoa w/pan-fried pecans (delicious), green beans and roasted red bell peppers as I had a voracious appetite to contend with (always...), and slept into early evening. I awoke to a revitalized sense of purpose & turned the computer on and started a last, reflective, paper for another class of mine that I haven't been concentrating on as much as I would have liked all semester. Four hours later I decided to abort that for the time being and attack my other paper... Yes the one due tomorrow evening. I had one last check I wanted to do before pushing send and something was stopping me from doing so the night before. Whatever it was, fear, pride, uneasiness, afraid to let go of all the stress that this caused me- whatever, I was able to proof one last time, insert the headers/footers and off it went! POOF* my work is done here.  Buh-bye. Game over. It was an excellent head trip & I am all the better for it. Let the decompression begin... not quite yet though. Still another week of classes, 1 last paper due, 1 last teaching session and class discussion so... I'm not quite ready to take myself deep into the jungle of Hana & backside Kaupo and just scream until the foliage absorbs it, me- takes me into its arms & caresses me until its time to spit me out & I re-introduce myself into society as a normal person who has time on their side...

It is nearing 5 a.m. & it's time to get some shut eye. I hear the rumble of the waves hitting the cliffs down the gulch 1 mile away. It excites me. During all the excitement of the day I was able to remember to text my boss & let her know I would not be coming into work Monday a.m. as I plan on sleeping in late (7 a.m?) and heading to Jaws to partake in the festivities of watching the men who ride mountains. Yes I'm taking 60' faces supposed to be hitting the Islands- well, just about now actually so I bid you all a good night because I'm ready to have my mind blown on the cliffs of Peahi in a few short hours. If no one has experienced this, I assure you it is THRILLING, mind-blowing and just the beauty of the movement of seeing something conquer- no,not conquer- seeing somebody with such intent & will & love get towed into a developing wave and let go of the towrope and ride down the face of a monster wave with such grace and intensity... that is some good energy and I want to be around to feel it. Not to mention that the scenery is certainly easy on the eyes both on the cliffs & in the water!!!