A Tale of Personal Discovery On Kauai's NaPali Coast
In honor of my hundredth post here on Steemit, I decided to share a story of discovery, for that is the general theme that embodies my journey here.
Most of my life has been spent in a chameleon-like service to those around me. I only utilized what talents I had in developing the well-being of others. My prime goal was bending myself around people so that they could achieve maximum mental comfort. While that can be a noble pursuit, living completely through other's achievements is not exactly fulfilling in the personal development department.
Recently I have been discovering the value that I have to offer the world through sharing the things that I create. Through teaching classes, solving and sharing my solutions to problems, and ultimately blogging here at Steemit, I have slowly but surely been carving out my own niche in this world. I am so thankful for this platform and community. The warm welcome and generous acceptance of my scribblings, despite my obvious noobness, is of immeasurable value to me.
So with that said, post 100's theme is:
THANK YOU!
And now, for the story:
Warm water. Aside from the water that spews out of my tap, I knew in the back of my mind that warm water existed in nature. My Native Hawaiian husband had taunted me with this fact for years. The irony of being married to a Hawaiian, yet never having visited the islands was not lost on me, and after a decade and a half of marriage, was our own personal joke. In 2015 we finally scraped enough money together for all four of us to fly to Kauai, my husband's ancestral home. He hadn't been to the islands in almost twenty years by that point in time, and hadn't been home to Kauai in almost forty years. The children and I were pretty ecstatic as we had never set foot in Hawaii, and I was over the moon because I was going to get to experience the ocean in a warm state.
My experience with ocean water is as follows:
Arrive at the ocean.
Mentally prepare myself for an almost cardiac-arrest event
Stand on water's edge and contemplate any and all sins that I may have committed. Death could occur.
Hurl myself into the 37 degree, almost frozen domain of Poseidon
Surface like a breaching humpback whale while simulatneously gasping for breath like a beached salmon.
Proceed with swimming, as I am now too numb to feel any of the icy Pacific daggers that are stabbing my flesh.
Repeat like a person with absolutely no mental faculties of self-preservation.
I mean, I was baptized in the Pacific Ocean at the impressionable age of thirteen. I think my parents encouraged me to do this so they would have a really funny conversation piece, for the picture my mother captured of me exploding out of the water totally inspires impolite conversation. In the milliseconds the baptizers had me submerged I repented all manner of transgressions, for I wanted deliverance from the frozen mortification of my flesh.
When I stepped off of the plane in Kauai, the first thing that I noticed was the lovely scent, the tropical breeze, and the warm, comforting air that was ever-so-lightly bathing my form. "Well this is nice." I thought to myself, but still hadn't made the mental leap that I was, for the first time in my life, in the tropics, so the water of the ocean was going to be warm too.
The first beach that my husband wanted to take us to was up on the Napali Coast. We had looked at the picture many times of him as a teenager astride the cliff side in some pretty impressive white bell bottoms. I have to admit that the scenery was awe-inspiring as we zipped down the road in our convertible Mustang. There were jutting cliffs, lush green foliage surrounded us, chickens everywhere, but my primary attention was on the surf.
We cruised past Hanalei Bay, and Tom didn't stop until we reached the end of the road. We had arrived at Ke'e (Keh-Ay) Beach. We parked the car in some dirty mud among a few other vehicles, and as the children were unearthing all their beach detritus, I paused to look up. There, standing in the shadow of the fifty shades of green mountains, all I could focus on was the roar of the Pacific, just a few yards through the vine adorned path.
Arms full of beachy things, I strode out onto the golden sand beach and beheld a scene of such tropical beauty that if I could, I would still be sitting there pondering it. I dropped my towel and other accoutrements in the sand, and ignoring all things strode up to the water. I had been internally girding myself for the shock that always comes with dipping my digits into the ocean, and before I realized what happened, it occurred to me that I was already standing in the water. This couldn't be! My heart rate was normal! In a full state of shock I waded further into the almost bathwater warm embrace of the Hawaiian Pacific. None of my skin was tingling in agony, and my moment of bliss quickly ended when I turned around to discover my husband laughing at me.
I might have thrown a fair amount of wet sand in his direction.
We visited many other beaches during out stay on the Garden Island, and I loved every one of them, all for different reasons. That first experience though was one of childlike wonder and discovery, and although I wouldn't trade my Alaskan experiences for anything, I must admit that I am much more fond of swimming in the Pacific at more tropical latitudes.
The little Hawaiians quickly adapted to their native habitat
Kauai has a chicken infestation. My personal favorite sighting was the gang that loitered in front of the Lihue Walmart.
View from the car; it was really hard to behold, truly a trial for the soul.;)
As always, all of the pictures in this post were taken by the author, on her beach sand encrusted iPhone.
Written with StackEdit.