Small Alohas in Oahu

I'm thinking back to my recent visit to Oahu at the beginning of the month, with nothing clearly important to say about it except that it was exactly what I needed to do for myself. So, I'll give you bits of aloha that I carried back with me.

I was in Honolulu for a week to visit loved ones. At one point, early in the week, I met a lady called Auntie by her friends, a short, roundish island woman who gives out warm embraces like others give out business cards, only I like the hugs much better. She asked me how long I'd be on island. When I told her "only one week," her face looked concerned, sad, and sincerely empathetic. "Oh, you really must stay so much longer than that. We are so laid back here. You cannot get the feel of it here in only one short week."

She hugged me and wished me much aloha. Like everyone who meets her, I smiled and wished she could be my auntie forever.

I swam at Sans Souci Beach a few times, and one morning as I was drying off I looked up high above me and saw white soft clouds tumbling slowly. Three white terns stitched along the edges of the clouds, perfect white against dark blue. The silent ballet far overhead was exquisitely peaceful.

I hiked the mile and a half through dense rainforest on the Pu'u Pia Trail to a point above the Manoa valley that offers a pretty vista including the steep tree-covered walls and peaks to the north and Honolulu to the south. Along the way, strawberry guava groves and ginger blossoms stood in counterpoint to almost solid green. I was sweating like mad, as I invariably do in any kind of humidity, but it felt great to exert myself. It's considered an easy trail by young men but would be a challenge for those with a tendency to trip over roots or twist ankles on loose rocks. I wore the same sandals as on the Kalalau Trail on Kauai, the indestructible Ecco sport sandals I have had for over six years. I saw only four other people on that weekday morning, including my hiking companion. Birdsong was a symphony of bright twittering sound, almost magical. Later, I sat in the shade of an enormous banyan tree at the Chinese Cemetery overlooking the same valley. They say there is perfect fang shui energy there. I am not going to argue. Peace and tranquility seem to have been invented there.

The immediacy of nature in the islands creates a much different balance between human beings and their environment than you can sense in cities and towns across the mainland. Life is circular, cyclical and rhythmic in Hawaii. The ocean and the wind always have the final word in any discussion. Mauka way, toward the mountains, is centering, literally. You look up to the center and highest points of the island, downward and outward the shore and then the far horizons where the Pacific stretches to infinity. Rain can pound hard and flash floods accelerate the degradation of the mountain slopes over time. What was once a mountain ridge or a coral reef becomes flat beach sand that is incessantly tumbled by waves.


I swam at Sans Souci or Ala Moana Regional Park beach every midmorning. One day I made a trip to Fresh Cafe to have an acai bowl. I was salt encrusted and felt pretty mellow after my swim, found the recommended little place on Montserrat, ordered and waited. The walls stood testament to the surfing-is-my-religion lifestyle of the cafe's patrons, young locals with their kids alike, all of us patiently anticipating our treat. Jawaiian music played and flip flops were everywhere. A large brown plastic Buddha smiled at me, he draped in plastic leis and surrounded by grainy, out-of-focus snapshots of what probably were pretty sunsets. I got back home later and realized what a mess I looked but did not care. No one knew me and will not likely see me again, incognito beach slob that I was.

We dressed up one night - skirt instead of shorts - but stuck to flip flops, and went to Town Restaurant in Kaimuki, a neighborhood of Honolulu. The Town slogan fits so well:  "Local first, organic whenever possible, with Aloha always." You know how you hear people singing karaoke at local pubs and think, "well, that was pretty okay?" and then hear Etta James sing "At Last?" That's the difference between nice food and Town's food. It's the real deal, the whole package. Young talented chef, integrity, vision, style, young energy and attention to detail. So, we had lovely fine drinks, food that nourished our hearts and souls and then walked home in the warm Hawaiian evening with our shirts fluttering in the playful breeze. We could not have asked for better and were very well pleased with it all.

It feels like whatever love is, the island winds and oceans tumble and splash with it. The moon rises up through it in the nighttime and the sun bursts forth with it in the morning in neon explosions of color. Auntie's dismay at the news of my brief time in the islands was born of her lifelong knowledge that love and aloha are at home in the small things of life in Hawaii.

I promised Auntie I will return; I would anyway even if I had not promised her. I must, for so many reasons, but most of all - aloha.