Finally, a chance to take a breath, to play some music for myself in a leisurely way, to read, lie on beaches, snorkel and sight-see…

Back in November, while enroute to Kamloops for a short visit with my sister’s family, and to see my brother-in-law brilliantly play an inspector in the play, Ravenscroft, I bought a new book by Richard Wagamese, called “One Drum”.

The “One Drum” book is truly revelatory for me. While it is simple and straight forward in its accessibility, it is also profoundly ringing true, whilst it urges me to use a Sacred Breathing practice to centre and remind me that “I Am One with Creation”. That has provided some insights in our days so far in Maui.

So in the adjustment between our very busy lives at home, (and for me, putting in place all that is required to leave my practice on pause for a couple of weeks away) and arriving in the beleaguered paradise that is Maui, has been both a shock and a wake up call…

The beaches, the landscape, the lush tropical vegetation, the sunny warm weather and the (expensive, but) delicious fruit and other food is all truly wonderful.

We have been snorkelling a couple of times already, and it is beautiful – but we are still finding our way with that. It has been quite awhile since either of us have used that gear, so I don’t think we are truly in full swing with the aqua world just yet…

Yesterday we drove from the central part of this island (where we are very fortunate to have a friend’s place to stay in, and use as a base) past Lahaina – which was the ancient Hawaiian capitol, and perhaps the most notable heritage location not only on Maui but throughout Hawaii- and which was, of course, gutted by the hurricane /fires in July of this year. It was surreal, and traumatic to see even glimpses of what has been lost. Most of the devastation is bypassed and behind barriers at this point.

And, while I totally understand and support a respect for privacy in the wake of this devastation, I do hope that the survivors and grieving family members will get the emotional, spiritual and financial support they so need to recover from this. But it is also heartening to see how resilient many people here seem to be in the aftermath of such an outrageous scale of tragedy.