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| (because I forgot to post entry 2) Amanda tried to explain to me what being in Maui is like when I was still on the mainland, but I could not possibly have known, and neither could you, unless youve been here
But today as I was reading out loud to Amanda in the meditation garden overlooking the ocean, I came across a passage that said something along the lines of,
When you experience those moments of clarity, of needing and wanting nothing, of understanding that all you could ever want or need is right here, in this moment, as you take this breath, the inclination would be that you need not share this with anyone else. But on the contrary, we as human beings are driven and motivated to share this luminescence with one another, not out of obligation, but out of sheer delight, and because it cannot be contained.
And so I write this, because night has fallen and my thoughts are still filled with excitement. This life is so beautiful, and I am so filled with joy. I do not attribute this to my current location, although I am positive that most likely, this feeling has something to do with living in a tropical paradise far away from everything, surrounded by positivity and human Good coming from every direction.
I feel this coming from inside of me. From accepting that I deserve a good life and good things from it, and realizing that it can, in fact, (and at least for the time being) exist without economy as we understand it, or want of it. I feel it coming from an inner joy that can only come from shedding the shackles of fear and uncertainty, and from living the life of a traveler and listening to the stories of other travelers and realizing that it is totally possible to make a life of adventure and exploration a reality. It is possible to make your life what you dream it to be, whatever that may be. This brings me so much joy, as if I can handle any situation that comes my way, and celebrate it with all the love I have in my heart.
This island is full of travelers, and not just the human kind. Every living thing on this island has traveled here, from far away. Every person and plant and bird and organism has crawled onto this luscious rock in one way or another. We are all weary travelers come together to form this paradise. The land is so new, and this life is so new.
I dont know how to explain what goes on in my day-to-day life. I wake up and go to the temple that is suspended over the ocean and meditate on (what? I dont know. My mind is so clear these days. I look at the ocean and think about the light from the sun reflecting the blue of the sea on my retinas, and through some electro-chemical miracle producing the euphoria that leaves me trembling and swaying with the ocean breeze. I feel, all the time like I am riding the crest of something effortlessly, moving-moving- enjoying the view).
Kavel asks me if I want a young coconut and hacks away at it with a machete, exposing the husk. He cuts a little hole out of the top and I drink from it, and walk around in the jungle, walk out into the temple and play my guitar and drink from my coconut. Every young coconut has a different flavor. Some are neutral like water, some are sweet, others are bitter. Some are just slightly sweet and carbonated like champagne. It is always a delightful surprise.
The workload here is light for any jobs. The hardest work-trade jobs ask for 25 hours of work per week, and include all meals, and provide you with a tent, and air mattress, and sleeping bag, and lamp. Everyone understands the necessity of enjoying life, and sleeping when you feel the need to, and laying in the sun when you feel the need to, and hitching a ride to the nude beach to run around naked if you feel the need to.
Early tomorrow morning I am going to Steve-Os garden to check out my work-trade job. His garden has been here in Maui for 18 years and is one of the oldest established perma-culture gardens on the island. For 15 hours a week of gardening, pruning and general maintenance of the land, I get my own hut and become part of the tiny community that lives there. He is asking me for a two to three month commitment, which I will not promise, but am strongly considering. The garden is one mile away from the Twin Falls, and a thumb away from the Tantra Retreat that I am staying at right now.
The community is big on sustainable living and not big on electricity. During my stay there I will have to get used to deprivation of two of my greatest vices- smoking, and the internet. I never thought I would get so hippie-ed out. But its worth a try. I have a slight interest in sustainable living, just as I do in tantra, but I am always slightly wary, as always, of everything I encounter. I am perpetually a devils advocate, but always willing to try new things. I like it this way. It keeps me sharp.
I had my first lesson in tantra today, and meditated in the dark with Kavel, listening to Rafaels voice. I dont really know what tantra is, or what it means to other people. To me, many of its teachings are, like all other things, re-affirmations of what I already believe I have come to know intuitively through my natural relationship with all things in this existence. I find it impossible to forget that all things are related, and part of one whole, whether I see it or not.
When I first got here, everyone was so (blissed out, as Amanda calls it) that I was pretty sure everyone was slightly off their rocker, a lunatic, so to speak. The seriously genuine enjoyment of every bite of food, the swooning over the fresh passion fruit off the tree, the generous massages (non-perverted) the hitchhiking (Mauis main mode of transportation), the work-trading. It is so bizarrely different from any life I have ever seen.
Now I am starting to understand. The lunacy is this Maui temperament that people have, the utter confidence that everything works out for the best, and a true willingness to go out of their way to help each other out, to help a stranger out, even. A girl I met for less than a minute at the potluck on Wednesday hooked me up with this perma-culture job. The hitchhiker we picked up on the way back from Paia today offered me another (she had just left her work-trade because she was wanting more variety in her life). Rob-Rob, who Id also met for less than a minute offered me a position doing henna tattoos and portraits from $`12/hour in the city, where the resorts and tourists are. I did not take it because I did not want to be in the city, where the tourists are.
I do not think I will fully be able to digest this experience until I leave Maui and have landed myself at a point of reference. Right now I am just experiencing it. The people are good, the beaches are beautiful, the food is delicious and it is all costing me close to nothing. Soon I will not be able to write quite as much. What I have been doing, is typing in my treehouse on my laptop, and then cutting and pasting to my blog.
.I just got very distracted. It is literally POURING outside. Like you cant possibly know. In only a way that it pours on a tropical island. It sounds gorgeous, this rain is a velvet blanket thumping against the banana leaves.
Well I am sleepy. I wish I could share this experience more regularly, but sometimes, you just need to experience things, and save the sharing part for later.
To anyone reading this, so much love. I know you can feel it 5000 miles away, thats how strong it is. Mahalo, for everything, you know? And aloha. (Because we are always coming, and always going.) |
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