Beauty in the Breakdown
Running, pounding feet
To the beats coursing through my
Mp3
Cushy shoes grip the spaces between
Mud, tree roots and slippery rocks
Feet take turns finding
Where each sole must fall
For its landing
To be perfect
On this curving and rolling
rainforest trail
Ginger charges ahead of me,
Jo Jo trots behind and
We are a pack,
ingesting the air
in thick,
sublimely-saturated
huffs
Our every move is a dance
to the rhythm of the simplest elements
Wetness on skin is both sweat and rain
The dogs have vines wound up in their tails
We are Breathing
Breathing
Breathing
And sensations are rich,
as throbbing signals
Push their way
through our veins
When our path comes to an end,
And before getting back in the car,
We three lay happily entangled
atop sopping foliage beds
covered in the dirty glow of
our hard working hearts
We are Panting
Panting
Panting
Just Being
Supremely Alive,
And this is the greatest blessing
Any of us can know.
21.11.07
19.11.07
Waipio Welcomes Us Home
We were lucky enough to get to drive our friend wanda's rented jeep for the day, as she left for her home in california earlier than expected. this car was a dream machine - made for places like waipio valley. Ginger waited in the car for almost an hour before we had packed and were ready to leave!
we were immersed in cool, beautiful water all day long.
Abandoning our backpacks here, we wore nothing but bathing suits and bare feet; with help of hands for gripping and arms for swinging between rocks, we used upper body strength when footwork was tricky and technical, and we clamored up riverways like a primal adam and eve. covered in mud and wet. muscles in motion. the smell of everything pungently GREEN, damp and alive!
(For perspective: Find Chris in this picture on the left. He's sitting on a rock, against the backdrop of the very farthest cliff wall in the waipio valley. In the photo, he's about the size of a bit of dust! From this far away - and really until your own hands are within touching distance of the waterfall - it looks as if it's completely dry. But once you swim out to it, you end up under its brilliant rainstorm!)
The current caretaker of linda beech's magnificent treehouse, where chris and i trekked the first time we came here together, caught a ride with us down into the valley! and so kindly, he offered to take us on a personal tour of the grounds, and the actual treehouse itself. our awesome little jeep bounced lightly over the rugged valley floor with ease. so we drove all the way to linda's property - across rivers, down rivers, next to rivers, through dense foliage, and into what seemed like a fantasy land.
FOR MORE ON THE TREEHOUSE:
Check out a cool documentary called "Home Movie". It came out probably ten years ago, and it the documentation (by one filmmaker's account) of the 5 most interesting homes in the country. Linda's is one of them. I saw this movie years before I moved to Hawaii, and in fact remember it being one of the things that made me want to move here.
* * *
Our hike to hi'ilawe falls in waipio valley was saturated with sensory pleasure and intense fun. This trip was new to both Chris and me, which made it all the more exciting!
we were immersed in cool, beautiful water all day long. 
Abandoning our backpacks here, we wore nothing but bathing suits and bare feet; with help of hands for gripping and arms for swinging between rocks, we used upper body strength when footwork was tricky and technical, and we clamored up riverways like a primal adam and eve. covered in mud and wet. muscles in motion. the smell of everything pungently GREEN, damp and alive!
Our happy golden retriever faced challenges with us across every procession of huge, moss-covered bolders, and through every vein and tributary of the river. she cried and cried at times, not believing in her own abilities. but when pushed and encouraged, she made leaps and bounds and was very proud of herself! (as we were of her).
We spent the afternoon climbing waterfalls as they ascending up a rainforest river, rapids cascading over our heads and faces and bodies at times. 
we journeyed...we adventured. we followed each other and the call of the falls as they beckoned us to continue along this unknown path.
(For perspective: Find Chris in this picture on the left. He's sitting on a rock, against the backdrop of the very farthest cliff wall in the waipio valley. In the photo, he's about the size of a bit of dust! From this far away - and really until your own hands are within touching distance of the waterfall - it looks as if it's completely dry. But once you swim out to it, you end up under its brilliant rainstorm!)we reached the promised pool, turquoise and majestic, where golfball sized droplets pelted us from the heavens as we finally reached the very back of the valley. the falls dropped down the face of a sheer cliff wall that reached upwards of 2000 feet into the sky.
We hiked back, drove home, and marveled - once again - at the beauty and magic that continually bless our adventures.
7.11.07
LAST WEEK
We hiked in Waiamea at Anna's Pond...
We rolled down the hills, barely missing huge cow pies and giggling all the way.
Ginger purposely rolled IN a huge cow pie, writhing around joyfully in it as if it were the greatest set of silk sheets in the world! (Then she rubbed up against me... P.U.! )
malio and chris "raced" up this "hill". it took them about 45 minutes. they weren't so much running as they were slogging. still impressive display of boyish testosterone. (If you look at the photo with a microscope, you can see them both dotting the hillside).
A couple of EXTRORDINARY things went down (quite literally):
Malio jumped about 8 stories from a tree into the river in front of the falls. i know - he's a complete nut. KIDS - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! (Those two little bird legs you see in the middle of the branch hanging across the waterfall...those are Malio's feet). UNREAL maneuver!
I reached into my back pocket when we reached the falls, grabbing for my camera only to realize it was not there! it could have been anywhere along the tangly, foliage-ridden trail, or the grassy, dirty downhill path along which i scooted on my behind...or...in the muddy, twisty, rocky, murky, cold RIVER.
...i decided i would not leave until i found my brand new, deeply loved underwater camera. i was completely determined. i waded in the river for over an hour, retracing every inch of my path, tip-toeing across just the right rocks. i dug around in underwater grassbeds, thinking the camera might be woven up inside one of them. i took my shoes off, so that i could feel around the river bottom with my bare feet and in between rock crevices with my toes.
...i threw my left shoe onto the river bank, and in slow motion, it rolled three times, then plopped into the river, and was immediately whisked off downstream, tumbling over rapids and disappearing quickly from view. rather than get upset, i simply threw my other shoe right after it. i am growing "pads" on the bottoms of my feet from hiking and walking barefooted so much. COOL!
...i reached into all other crevices with my hands where i could reach. i went back over the land paths more than twice each. malio and chuck looked too. i finally asked my mom to guide me to the camera. i waded back to the edge of the river, to the exact spot where i had entered it in the first place. i reached my hand blindly down into a pocket between rocks under the current, and there my camera put itself in my hand. THANK YOU MOM!
* after our long, exhausting day, we got into chris' car and turned the i-pod on "shuffle". the very first song that began to play - (and it's a miracle chris didn't immediately change it, like he usually does) - was KODACHROME, by PAUL SIMON. paul simon was mom's favorite singer of all time. the song lyrics go like this: KODACHROME, YOU GIVE US THOSE NICE, BRIGHT COLORS, GIVE US THE GREENS OF SUMMERS, MAKES YOU THINK ALL THE WORLD IS A SUNNY DAY, OH YEAH...I GOT A NIKON CAMERA, LOVE TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS, SO MOMMA DON'T TAKE MY KODACHROME AWAY...
...well, my momma sure didn't take mine away. SHE GAVE IT BACK!
We rolled down the hills, barely missing huge cow pies and giggling all the way.
Ginger purposely rolled IN a huge cow pie, writhing around joyfully in it as if it were the greatest set of silk sheets in the world! (Then she rubbed up against me... P.U.! )
malio and chris "raced" up this "hill". it took them about 45 minutes. they weren't so much running as they were slogging. still impressive display of boyish testosterone. (If you look at the photo with a microscope, you can see them both dotting the hillside).A couple of EXTRORDINARY things went down (quite literally):
Malio jumped about 8 stories from a tree into the river in front of the falls. i know - he's a complete nut. KIDS - DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! (Those two little bird legs you see in the middle of the branch hanging across the waterfall...those are Malio's feet). UNREAL maneuver!
I reached into my back pocket when we reached the falls, grabbing for my camera only to realize it was not there! it could have been anywhere along the tangly, foliage-ridden trail, or the grassy, dirty downhill path along which i scooted on my behind...or...in the muddy, twisty, rocky, murky, cold RIVER.
...i decided i would not leave until i found my brand new, deeply loved underwater camera. i was completely determined. i waded in the river for over an hour, retracing every inch of my path, tip-toeing across just the right rocks. i dug around in underwater grassbeds, thinking the camera might be woven up inside one of them. i took my shoes off, so that i could feel around the river bottom with my bare feet and in between rock crevices with my toes.
...i threw my left shoe onto the river bank, and in slow motion, it rolled three times, then plopped into the river, and was immediately whisked off downstream, tumbling over rapids and disappearing quickly from view. rather than get upset, i simply threw my other shoe right after it. i am growing "pads" on the bottoms of my feet from hiking and walking barefooted so much. COOL!
...i reached into all other crevices with my hands where i could reach. i went back over the land paths more than twice each. malio and chuck looked too. i finally asked my mom to guide me to the camera. i waded back to the edge of the river, to the exact spot where i had entered it in the first place. i reached my hand blindly down into a pocket between rocks under the current, and there my camera put itself in my hand. THANK YOU MOM!
* after our long, exhausting day, we got into chris' car and turned the i-pod on "shuffle". the very first song that began to play - (and it's a miracle chris didn't immediately change it, like he usually does) - was KODACHROME, by PAUL SIMON. paul simon was mom's favorite singer of all time. the song lyrics go like this: KODACHROME, YOU GIVE US THOSE NICE, BRIGHT COLORS, GIVE US THE GREENS OF SUMMERS, MAKES YOU THINK ALL THE WORLD IS A SUNNY DAY, OH YEAH...I GOT A NIKON CAMERA, LOVE TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS, SO MOMMA DON'T TAKE MY KODACHROME AWAY...
...well, my momma sure didn't take mine away. SHE GAVE IT BACK!
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