The Big Island of Hawaii is known as the "healing island". Many are called to Hawaii, their dreams of Paradise pulling them here. Some look for that idyllic place with endless lazy days; food literally dropping from the trees and jumping from the ocean onto their dinner plates. Some come seeking spiritual enlightenment or to open their own healing retreat...(lots and lots of those!) Others have grand financial schemes. Some are simply running away from their dreary lives in their homelands, in search of the exotic.
The stories are endless. Mine is just one of them. I came here thinking I was rescuing a friend; I very nearly needed rescue myself, instead! I also thought I was preparing the way for my family to follow. I had found a place far from the crowding and pressures of urban life on the East Coast. A place filled with natural wonders, a place where people greet and treat one another with Aloha, rather than cold indifference. Instead, it seems I almost live the life of an exile. None of the others have followed me yet(although my son arrives this week for an extended stay.)
Hawaii has a way of knocking sense into us. There is no place for the arrogant here. Preconceptions will fall, for sure....and the changes come, whether invited or not. I haven't met a single newcomer whose way here hasn't been marked by some trouble or turmoil. Many return to their prior lives; many sink into alcoholism or drug addiction. There is a price to be paid for living in paradise. And yes, I've been humbled. I've not enjoyed the professional success I had on the mainland, for one. I do without many of the material belongings or security I once had, too. Do I need them? ....seems that I do not! (smile) But I've made some good friends and come to be more comfortable with who I am as a human, stripped of social prestige or family connections or status symbol. I was moved to tears when a service organization I belong to made a contribution in my name. I've been humbled by the kindness of strangers. I learn to receive, as well as to give....
Thank God for the healing of these blessed islands. It is in the humbling they offer where the healing begins.
Malama Pono
Ruth
The stories are endless. Mine is just one of them. I came here thinking I was rescuing a friend; I very nearly needed rescue myself, instead! I also thought I was preparing the way for my family to follow. I had found a place far from the crowding and pressures of urban life on the East Coast. A place filled with natural wonders, a place where people greet and treat one another with Aloha, rather than cold indifference. Instead, it seems I almost live the life of an exile. None of the others have followed me yet(although my son arrives this week for an extended stay.)
Hawaii has a way of knocking sense into us. There is no place for the arrogant here. Preconceptions will fall, for sure....and the changes come, whether invited or not. I haven't met a single newcomer whose way here hasn't been marked by some trouble or turmoil. Many return to their prior lives; many sink into alcoholism or drug addiction. There is a price to be paid for living in paradise. And yes, I've been humbled. I've not enjoyed the professional success I had on the mainland, for one. I do without many of the material belongings or security I once had, too. Do I need them? ....seems that I do not! (smile) But I've made some good friends and come to be more comfortable with who I am as a human, stripped of social prestige or family connections or status symbol. I was moved to tears when a service organization I belong to made a contribution in my name. I've been humbled by the kindness of strangers. I learn to receive, as well as to give....
Thank God for the healing of these blessed islands. It is in the humbling they offer where the healing begins.
Malama Pono
Ruth
posted by Ruth | 11:25 AM
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