I like imagining the coziness evoked by a crackling fireplace contrasted with snow drifting lazily across the soft beams of streetlight outside the window. And the idea of sledding down the hill in our backyard, dressed from fluff-ball-topped snow hat to moon boots in winter gear, brings to mind precious childhood memories. But in reality, being cold makes me feel burdened and blue. 
What makes me euphorically happy, though, is the sensual delights of tropical sunshine, sand, and the sweetness of salty seafoam. I love being barefooted, and having a wardrobe that consists of little more than a variety of bathing suits. I love the fruit trees outside my windows here, that bear starfruit, papayas, avocados, bananas, coconuts, and citrus of all kinds.
I love the surreal and spectacular opportunities that present themselves here: To swim in freshwater-filled lava tubes underground; to kayak across pure turquoise bays with spinner dolphins performing acrobatics in the nearby open sea; to hike up rivers surrounded in emerald foliage to the cold pools that catch rushing - or sometimes trickling - waterfalls; to see the stars with astronomical clarity and brilliance, as if in the real, living planetarium; to watch molten lava pour from the active volcano into the sea, creating more and more of this Big Island with every red hot drop.
I love the ocean with a passion difficult to describe. The simple act of swimming in the sea, to my mind, constitutes absolute euphoria. It holds me up, makes me weightless; it cools my hot skin. It provides my body - a vehicle for evolution's realization - with an environment right for practice. I am in training to become a more efficient and streamlined ocean cruising animal in lifetimes to come. The ocean is home to whales and dolphins; and, as such, is home to my spirit. The Ocean is a Heavenly cradle, and I feel small in and complete in its swells, under its deep and mysterious spell.
So, here I am, having reentered my 'second life'. Not in the virtual world, but on the physical Earth. It has become a pattern, that I live in Denver for the Spring and Summer, and in Hawaii for the Fall and Winter. I know...I am most profoundly blessed.
Having flown south once again, I let thoughts of snow and cold drift away; and await the deluge of a stern tropical rain that will undoubtedly pour in from the Great Beyond, and saturate my thirsty soul from the Greatness Above.
I love the ocean with a passion difficult to describe. The simple act of swimming in the sea, to my mind, constitutes absolute euphoria. It holds me up, makes me weightless; it cools my hot skin. It provides my body - a vehicle for evolution's realization - with an environment right for practice. I am in training to become a more efficient and streamlined ocean cruising animal in lifetimes to come. The ocean is home to whales and dolphins; and, as such, is home to my spirit. The Ocean is a Heavenly cradle, and I feel small in and complete in its swells, under its deep and mysterious spell.
So, here I am, having reentered my 'second life'. Not in the virtual world, but on the physical Earth. It has become a pattern, that I live in Denver for the Spring and Summer, and in Hawaii for the Fall and Winter. I know...I am most profoundly blessed.
Having flown south once again, I let thoughts of snow and cold drift away; and await the deluge of a stern tropical rain that will undoubtedly pour in from the Great Beyond, and saturate my thirsty soul from the Greatness Above.
