Morning on Maui

This morning I woke early and took an hour's walk alone by the ocean. The view reminded me of Waipushrink's New Zealand, and I loved these graceful trees with the morning sun beaming through them and lighting up distant fields on the mountainsides.

Bella and I spent the day together while her parents went snorkeling: we spent about an hour trying out all the chairs in the lobby and investigating the gardens, and another hour playing in the foot-washer people use when they come in from the beach. She and I like simple pleasures. Tonight we're going out for a sunset dinner to celebrate Seth's 39th birthday.

This is an amazing place. I remember that the last time I had to leave, when I was fourteen, I wept all the way back to the Mainland on the military transport plane. Teenagers never want to move away from their friends, but it was more than that. Who would ever want to leave such beauty and such a gentle culture, such a wonderful ethnic mix of people speaking slowly and smiling and reflecting the ease of the land in their songs and language? It seems to me that people in Hawaii have a built-in laid-back ease that takes the stress out of daily life. I'm sure there are people here who obsess, who are driven to achieve and prove themselves and make everything they do perfect. But I think they're in the minority.

Tomorrow night we return to the Mainland, arriving Thursday morning. It has been the holiday of a lifetime.