Hey friends,

I’ve just returned home from a quick trip to Hawaii with my sweetie! He surprised me with this gift for my birthday… and I am filled up with starfruit and pink skies, turquoise ocean and warm saltwater, parrot fish and squalls that come out of nowhere and drench you. I am filled up with lilikoi and breadfruit, papaya and pineapple, poke and grilled fish.

​​​​​​​I am filled with 5 days in a row of being with my sweetie – a record for us given our complex parenting schedules! We have never gone away together before and it was such a luxury to have long conversations about everything and nothing.

We hiked, swam and watched for the green flash when the sun set. We snorkeled from a catamaran and walked on lava rocks until I our feet were sore. We visited a friend’s farm where we saw things grow that I didn’t even know existed! We prepared pineapple and taro for planting season and picked butterfly pea out of the garden – a magical flower that makes everything blue if you place it in hot water.

Hawaii is a place that is brimming with aliveness – such a great reminder of the abundance of our world and how the land takes care of us. (And that we need to honor and serve the land as well)

When we got off the plane last night, our lungs were instantly filled with smoke from the fires here in Northern California.

Such a sobering return. Such contrast to the wet, jungle lushness where we just were! I walked into a dark house (no power for my neighborhood right now) and noticed so many simple things I take for granted.

I am reflecting how we experience life by contrast. How we don’t notice how effortlessly we breathe until we get sick and can’t. That we don’t notice that the lights always turn on when we flick the switch until they don’t. My kids didn’t appreciate “outdoor recess” until the last couple of years when there have been periods (like now) where they can’t go outside due to poor air quality.

I suppose I am saying that I’m grateful for the simple things today – that there was still some hot water in the water heater for a shower this morning, that we are all safe, that there is hot coffee in my cup and my back that went out last week is currently pain-free. Those kinds of things. Things I only notice when I don’t have them.