The world is running mad with its notion that its evils are to be relieved by political changes, political remedies, political nostrums, whereas the great evils – civilization, bondage, misery – lie deep in the heart, and nothing but virtue and religion can remove them.
Wordsworth
Category: Life on Earth (Page 1 of 23)
I’ve felt the urge to blog again, but it hasn’t been strong enough to pull me away from the farm work at our home here on Hawaii island. So much to do here, and we are in the middle of Macadamia nut harvest season and with four acres of trees to take care of, and keeping up with the maintenance and repairs around here, I seem to have little time. All that and keeping up with my job at Automattic (WordPress.com).
We did get out for a trip today to Waipio Valley today. The weather was misty and overcast, but that only seems to add to the beauty of this place. The road down into the valley is very steep and only four wheel drive vehicles are allow to make the trip. Glad I have one. Here are a few shots from our trip, and a couple thrown in as a bonus from our home in Holualoa on the west side of the island, south of Kailua-Kona. Life is really, really good. 🙂
Aloha from Hawaii Island. Yes, I am back home (for any of you that know the story). My beloved and I bought a house on the island and I’m living here right now, and more or less patiently (sometimes not so much) waiting until she and her daughters can be here too. Long story, perhaps for another time.
The image above, is an Ohia tree, which is found mostly around the Volcano area on the south of Hawaii Island, but this one is on our farm in Holualoa, just south of Kona. To some it is referred to as “Pele’s tree”.
When we first visited the island to look at this property, we noticed that this tree was completely bare, with no leaves, and my first thought was, ‘I get to practice my chainsaw skills’, but at the same time, I thought, ‘you know, I kind of like this bare tree standing guard on our property. It isn’t threatening the house, so perhaps we will keep it just as it is.’
We didn’t know what kind of tree it was, or had been, but it turned out to be an Ohia. The legend says that Pele saw this handsome warrior named Ohia and asked him to marry her, but Ohia had already pledged his love to Lehua. Pele was furious and turned Ohia into a twisted, ugly tree. Although the gods could not reverse Pele’s magic, they too pity on Lehua and turned her into the flower on the Ohia tree so the two lovers would be forever joined together. (paraphrased from Love Big Island)
Ok, back to our story. We decided to make an offer on the property and then a couple months later did a return visit to do some measurements and such for furniture. At that time, as I remember, I saw a few leaves on the tree. A couple months later I returned to do the final walkthrough prior to us signing all the paperwork, and I saw the tree covered in leaves and Lehua blossoms. I was a bit surprised, but also quite pleased that the tree had come back. It took a bit for me to realize it was an Ohia, and I wondered what it was doing this far up on the west side of the island.
I had returned to my hotel that night, and while lying in bed, I thought about the tree and a thought came (?) to me. This is our connection to Pele. She is in her own way blessing our purchase of this property. I sent her my gratitude and aloha, of course.
When we came back this June to take possession of the property, the tree was looking even better and covered in blossoms. After a few days, we headed down to pay our respects to Pele and give her our thanks, and when I closed my eyes at the crater rim, the first thought I has was of the tree. I knew then that I had been right, this was our connection to Pele and that she would watch over us. When we turned to leave, we were gifted a beautiful rainbow over the crater. I think of those as Pele’s smile.
It’s been quite a year, looking back on things. Nothing seemingly major, but certainly shifts and some clearing out of stuff that doesn’t serve me (well ok, not EVERYTHING cleared out, but working on it), and welcoming of new stuff to replace it. Whether that has been true for you too, or not, the one thing I think we probably all experienced with our busy lives is how quickly it all zipped by.
We are a few steps closer to moving back to Hawaii Island, but out check-list of to-do items is very long, and in the first part of this new year, I have some traveling to do. Luckily that travel is to Hawaii. Kauai to be exact, and then back to Hawaii island for a couple weeks with the family where we will visit some schools and also look at some more properties.
Oh yeah, and this image was taken last summer on our trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons. It was a wonderful trip. Isn’t she grand?
Here is hoping everyone has an awesome 2015.
Guilt and blogging
Sometimes it is hard to get unstuck, or to start movement in a direction again, such as with me and blogging. There was a part of me that felt guilty for not blogging. I had this blog, I was paying for hosting, the domain name and all, I was spending time keeping the updates done and such, but not using it. Feeling guilty thought, is never a good reason for doing , or not doing, something.
What you need is a guilt free desire to do it, and it should feel good and rewarding. If it doesn’t feel good or rewarding, you have to determine why. If the why is, I just don’t enjoy it, or its too much work, or whatever then perhaps its time to hang up the blogging. Take a break, do other things and then you can revisit it later if you desire, but keep guilt out of the equation.
As part of my process to move away from guilt and see if I truly have a desire to blog again, I’ve changed the theme on my site. I’ve liked this theme, Hemingway, since I first saw it and after looking at what seems to have been a couple of thousand, I kept coming back to it, so here it is. Next step I think is looking through my photos for a header image. The one that comes with the theme isn’t bad, but it’s not “mine”.
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