Our First Few Steps Along the Road Less Traveled…
07/16/11, Pahoa, HI
We landed on the Big Island with much anticipation and excitement. We had found the house we are renting for a year on Craig’s List almost 6 months earlier and had spent the last several months “emptying our cup” in a desire to start fresh, clean and unencumbered in our new home. We were READY! And as much as we both understand that it is best not to have expectations (Buddha taught that expectations will always lead to suffering), we both had visualized and daydreamed about our new life for so long that expectations felt somewhat inevitable at this point.
Before I update you on how it’s going so far, let me back up for a second to give you an idea of how this all came about. Prior to this move, our only true exposure to the Hawaiian Islands had been our trips to Maui with Jason’s family in which we always stayed at the Marriott in Ka’anapali, an extremely advantageous opportunity to spend 11 days in a $27 Million dollar home in Makena (my brother is a Varsity High School football coach and one of the families gave him two weeks at their amazing Maui estate as a thank you for helping their son get into his dream college to play football), and a trip to family friend’s house on Oahu when I was 11. We had never been to the Big Island and had really never experienced Hawaii outside of the manicured grounds of the resorts and houses we had visited.
How different could this be? We know Hawaii is a beautiful place with much to offer so we took the plunge without ever having been to this particular island and without a whole lot of information about the exact location we were moving to. We both had felt pulled to this particular location on the island through a series of synchronistic events. The driving forces behind our move were our desire to reconnect with nature (alkalinity!), the chance to slow down and live more simply, and experience all that Hawaii has to offer in terms of landscape, culture and lifestyle. From what we could tell, the community and location we were moving to was going to afford us this opportunity.
I don’t think anything could have prepared us for what we encountered upon arrival here! The Hawaii we knew was full of softly blowing palm trees, inviting surf with clear waters and white sand, a sun that sank lazily into the ocean every night, misty hills and gorgeous hula dancers. This Hawaii is best described as untamed, raw and intense. The ocean dramatic and full of power with a black bottom and black sand, hardened lava leaving no traces of the towns it had taken out in its path, massive trees, ferns, wild orchids and an overgrowth of foliage everywhere you look, and what can best be described as an “eclectic” group of inhabitants. Our house is situated right in the middle of this teeming jungle and feels like a very sophisticated, very zen tree-house or jungle bungalow! The water we drink and bathe in is rain water that is caught in a big tank under the house and then filtered, our power is 90% solar, and there is no garbage (you take your garbage to “Transfer Stations), cable or internet service where we live. We have running water and electricity but many of the people in this community do not and therefore take buckets to water stations and live by candlelight.
“Deep breaths, take deep breaths,” I had to remind myself as we drove through the “middle of nowhere” to our new house. “There is a reason why you are here,” I repeated in my mind like a mantra.
Due to the extreme variance between our expectations and the reality of our new surroundings, it took a few days for Jason and I to work through our shock. Buddha’s insight was certainly true for us and the fact that we had expectations led to “suffering” for a few days and interfered with our ability to see the beauty all around us and the opportunity we now had to get exactly what we had wanted –an overabundance of nature, simplicity, and exposure to a whole new culture and way of life. Being amongst the youngest earth on the planet, and to a large extent, one of the only places still untouched and manipulated by human hands, there is a powerful energy here that cannot be denied.
So after a few days of shock, the fog began to lift and we began to notice our surroundings. At first, I wanted to jump right in, connect with nature and learn to read the book of life as it is described best in a natural environment (ala Anastasia or Clarissa Pinkola’s “woman who runs with the wolves”). However, I quickly realized that I have been “domesticated,” “civilized,” and extremely disconnected to this powerful source for most of my life. My romantic notion of the simple life has given way to the reality that I am basically a domesticated cat at this point – not the gorgeous, confident lioness in the jungle that I long to be! And like a domesticated cat who has been dropped off in the middle of the jungle, I am vulnerable and “soft” having spent all of my life amongst my material comforts.
Our two and half year old, Madeline, went through the same “breaking in” process as my husband and me (although her transition has lasted significantly less time). Our house has a gorgeous backyard with lots of space, a striking lava rock covered with orchids, and a beautiful water garden with flowers, waterfalls and streams. When we saw pictures of this on-line I had visions of her running barefoot, wild and free in our yard, entranced with nature for hours. Once again, expectations had to be reset! For about the first week or so, she preferred to stay inside and when she did go outdoors, she stayed close to our side. She constantly asked to watch movies and needed lots of attention from us. However, after about a week or so, she started getting bolder and bolder in the yard and now she has officially shed most (not all!) of her need for artificial stimulation and is content for long stretches of time without our intervention with the flowers, rocks and water!
And my transition is happening slowly but surely as well. The sound of the frogs at night is beginning to sound like a lullaby and the rain on the roof no longer signifies a bad hair day but reminds me that we’re lucky we will have running water and a full pond for Madeline to play in, and the trip to the “Transfer Station” with our garbage is a consistent reminder to reduce our waste and continue to simplify. And although I am tentative walking barefoot because my soft feet do not bear the calluses necessary to navigate over the unforgiving lava rocks, and I am covered in mosquito bites because supposedly they like “fresh blood from the mainland,” every time I slip into one of the amazing natural ocean inlets where fresh water and ocean water meet, I feel Mother Earth wrap her arms around me and welcome me to this amazing playground of hers – not the concrete jungle I just left but the real jungle in all it’s raw, wild beauty.
So here we are. I went from living in one of the busiest cities on earth to one in which we are surprised when we hear a truck driving down our street (which is actually grass, not pavement!). From running a national wireless company to begging my neighbor for access to their unreliable, slow Internet access, only to find out it doesn’t work for most of the things we do online. From a place where no luxury or convenience is spared to a place where people are working hard to turn back the hands of time and resist the urge to “modernize” no matter how inconvenient or uncomfortable that may be in the short term.
These days I often think of the saying “I took the road less traveled and it has made all the difference.” After the trying time of our transition in California, the many ups and downs we have experienced already, and the general discomfort that we have had to get used to, I realize why people prefer to walk the “beaten path” - with it’s smooth surfaces, predictable turns, lighted pathways, and the security they feel in knowing many have taken this same road and survived. However, there is a sense of excitement every day we wake up here, and we are learning so much in our discomfort that so far I can say although it’s definitely not always easy to navigate, this road feels pretty cool and I’m happy to be traveling along it’s bumpy surface.
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Posted by steph on July 17, 2011
Love hearing about your journey! Can't wait for the next entry.