The Sacred Path

I experienced a lot of magic on my recent trip to Hawai’i and one very magical place is Kealakekua Bay near Captain Cook south of Kona. If you click on the image at left to see a larger version you will see that there are a lot of black lava stones along the water’s edge. Those are actually pushed up onto the beach during storms. In this image, the tide is high so the black sand of the beach is under water.

My first trip to the bay was with friends and we were walking around and talking so I didn’t get to relax and let the bay talk to me.

On my second trip to the bay I was alone and did more exploring. As you walk down behind the berm of stones, you find that people have piled them up into small monuments, and about a third of the way down someone had fashioned a quite comfortable chaise lounge complete with back rest from the stones. I adjusted a few of the stones and layed down. As I relaxed and allowed myself to slip into a light trance state, I became aware that I was hearing an echo of the waves crashing on the beach shortly after the waves actually crashed. Being the recovering engineer that I am, I looked around and realized that the echos were coming from the sound of the waves crashing being reflected off of the cliffs you see in the background.

As I enjoyed the symphony, I became aware that when the echo returned to me, a portal, or window was opening to the spiritual side of the bay, and then as I continued listening, I became aware that every time the echo returned, the spiritual side of the bay was speaking to me. It wasn’t coming as words, but more like an emotion, and after a while, I started to realize that in a way that is difficult to explain, the echo that seemed to come after the physical wave crashed on the beach was actually coming to me before the physical wave. This was an interesting thing to experience since my physical mind did not want to accept this. To it, the echo could not preceed the physical event.

There was an incredible joy being sent to me with each wave and echo. It was so full of life that all I could do was smile and laugh and let it carry me away. I’m not sure how long I layed there that day, but I would not have missed the experience for anything. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I returned two more times to let it sweep me away.

I got back to Wyoming on the 7th of this month, and it was a shock to be sure after three weeks in the arms of the Big Island of Hawai’i. It was an incredible journey and I’ll be sharing some of the special moments over the coming weeks.

The photo at right is the view from the lanai of the ohana unit (family unit) I was staying in during the last two weeks of my stay in Hawai’i. You will notice the overcast sky. Most of my second and third week on th island was overcast, or at the least partly overcast as it is “winter” there. Kiluea is also putting out a good bit of gases right now also, and that contributes to the grey skies. The place is on 1 acre of land, and I can’t say enough kind things about the owners. They were incredibly kind and generous with a true aloha spirit. There is just about everything you can think of growing on this property, and I was told that if I got hungry to just go out and graze. Many mornings when I got up, outside the door on the table on the lanai would be fresh picked mangos, oranges, tangerines and avacados. Also each morning when I woke up they would have put their copy of the “West Hawai’i Today” newspaper on the table outside my unit for me to read.

While we were on the south end of the Big Island of Hawai’i, we noticed a sign that indicated down a side road we could go to the southern most point in the US. Being the adventurous types, we of course couldn’t resist. About a half-hour later we arrived at a rocky cliff overlooking the Pacific, and as you can see, the water color was incredible. What is more incredible is that the camera didn’t really capture the color depth and richness (click on the image to see a larger version).

There were quite a few people there, many of them locals, and it turns out it is a popular place for diving off of the probably 30 foot tall cliff and into the incredibly blue water. I seriously considered putting on my swim trunks and taking a plunge, but decided in the end not to. I’m sure I will though after I move over there.

There are  remnants of concrete foundations at the cliff edge where I expect there used to military structures dating back to WWII. It would have been a perfect place for a radar installation, and just a short distance up the road were some old abandoned structures that definitely look ex-military. At the bottom of the image you can see one of the old metal ladders that I suspect was used during military personnel up and down the cliff, and they are still used by the divers (although the ladders have required some impromptu repair work over the years). There are also a couple block-and-tackle structures there that were probably used to bring supplies up to the installation.

You will notice some white stuff floating on the water which is a combination of organic and (sadly) human debris. Just off frame, there was a white plastic bag floating in the water that one of the divers retrieved during our visit.