I, like virtually everyone else who has reached some semblance of adulthood, have always dreamed of having “the perfect job”. What separates me from more practical and sensible people, I guess, is that I am holding out for it, no matter how hard the Ego of Society tugs at my sleeve, begging to buy my dreams. I’ve tried to rid myself of this drive because frankly, life would be easier without it. I could settle in one place, define myself with a preordained title, and possess some perceived sense of security. But the vision of the Greater Plan won’t let me go. Though it often feels light years away and utterly out of reach, as if I may need multiple lifetimes to achieve what is expected of me, it remains the one divine possibility that keeps me breathing and moving, always closer to its guiding light. Grabbing onto something right here and now – something more clearly defined and laid out in ink on a desktop calendar – would simplify my day-to-day. But in accepting ease over challenge, I wouldn’t evolve. And in the long run, I would live sadly, shackled by the unforgiving weight of regret. Anyway, ease isn’t what I’m after. The purpose of life is to live it. And to experience every single thing as if it were the sole anecdote for dying.
For following Faith over surrendering to Fear, I have been blessed with many amazing opportunities. But still, at age 31, I struggle to formulate a “career path” that is capable of satiating both my professional and spiritual hunger - for financial, internal and physical freedom in carrying out my life’s work. When people ask me what I want to “do” for work, I cannot say, “I want to be a ________” (insert name of profession here). But I do know how I want to effect change in the world. I want to be my own brand of a cross between Jane Goodall, who single-handedly altered the way Humanity defines both animal and human animal beings; and Jacques Cousteau, the Father of Ocean Exploration, who communed with the fellow intelligence in cetaceans and studied the exquisite alien underworld of the Sea.
What I do for work will dictate how I spend my TIME, in essence what my life is made of. Thus, I must be outdoors, must be able to move my body, must be immersed in saltwater a majority of the time, and must be able to creatively share my experiences with others. I have pulled various pieces of this puzzle together, in my dog fitness and pet photography business, and in working for several whale-related organizations in various positions. But no job description has ever struck me as being so completely RIGHT as this, as I have been holding out for nothing less than the Best Job in the World.
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My mom died four years ago, at 11:47PM on New Year’s Eve, 2004. And through the synchronistic progressions of the Bigger Plan, I ended up on The Big Island of Hawaii to begin my journey of healing. When people asked what I would do (here), I’d answer, “I am going to be barefooted at virtually all times, wear a bathing suit every day, swim in the ocean whenever my heart desires, and be near the whales that started me Sea bound, by entering my dreams and carrying my heart away on their giant, arcing backs. I will continue my evolution into an inhabitant of their undersea world.” Crippled with grief, and a soul critically injured, I needed (and could handle) nothing more than sun, saltwater, fun and adventure.
I landed in Kona late at night in early November of 2005. The following morning my new neighbor, Chris Rochon, stood on the doorstep. He was a skinny 21 year-old kid with funny hair, who invited me to go with him and his buddies on a hike that would take us more than a mile below the Earth, in a tunnel carved out by a raging river of lava thousands of years before we arrived.
We didn’t even leave Kona until 9PM, first stopping at Wal-Mart to stock up on batteries for Chris’s collection of neon-colored dive lights that would guide us through the lava tube. We then sped off into the night, northward for an hour or so, until eventually turning east on the one fiber of connective tissue between this side of the island and the other, known as Saddle Road. We drove for what felt like hours, finally pulling up to a huge gate, secured closed with multiple steel locks. We parked the car, hopped over the gate, and began what was to be a 2-hour hike across otherworldly territory that looked like I imagine the moon might. We trekked across miles and miles of jagged black lava rock under a full moon that rendered our lights unnecessary. We turned them on upon reaching the mouth of a huge underground cave, whose gaping mouth invited us in to explore its darker nature. We painstakingly tiptoed in our $4 Locals slippers (a.k.a. flip-flops), taking care not to rake the tops of our heads over hanging stalactites. At one point, we all sat to rest and simultaneously turned off our lights. There we were, breathing in darkness so deep it could hit the bottom of a black hole. Amazingly, it was a very serene place to be. By the time we hiked back out of the lava tube, back across the surface of this brave new world, and drove home, it was nearly 4:00 in the morning. This, remember, was ‘merely’ day one.
Since that day, Chris and I have adventured all over the Big Island of Hawaii, host to our fun-craving souls; our magical playground; emergent property of the marriage between the typically opposing forces of fire and water.
We have hiked countless miles across surreal terrain.
We’ve SCUBA dived with manta rays, feeling them brush against our stomachs as they swooshed like ballet dancers hunting their microscopic food.
We’ve kayaked along the Kona coastline watching the enormity of the majestic humpback whales as they migrate to warm Pacific waters to mate and birth their calves; and delighted in the antics of spinner dolphins showing off their acrobatic prowess. We’ve camped in Pololu Valley, carting tons of heavy gear on our backs down narrow switchbacks, where we took mud baths and exfoliated with sea salt while bathing in the purity of the ocean outside our tent.
We’ve jumped off the sixty-foot cliffs at South Point, and felt the surge of surf suck us into a cave and push us up to stand along its inside ridges, while the waves rushed in to taunt us.
We’ve jumped out of an airplane (on Oahu) 15,000 feet above the blue expanses of our planet, plummeting at 120 miles per hour before being lifted by chutes.
We’ve charged off the cliffs at Ke’e, where Chris then collected a handful of shipwrecked treasures, including a bottle cap, a barrette, and a beaded bracelet that had sunken to the sea floor.
We’ve half-swam half-crawled through taro marshes at the mouth of Waipio Valley, more watery mud than muddy water.
We’ve ditched our backpacks at the mouth of the river that leads to Hi’ilawe Falls, at nearly 3,000 feet one of the tallest waterfalls in Hawaii; and climbed up huge river boulders to pools beneath whitewater, until finally reaching the massive back wall of this sacred green place.
We’ve hiked barefooted to the flumes on White Road, swinging machetes through thick tangles of ginger, blazing our own trail where the 6.7 Earthquake of October 2005 had erased the original.
We’ve ventured on from there, along the rim of the Valley, and slid at mach speed down a water slide of Goonies quality, nestled deep in the lush belly of ferns leading to The Bamboo Forest.
We’ve played in some fantastic places, where the trail beneath my bare feet was a thick carpet of moss, the air was as sweet as candy, and the sensory intake was itself sensuous pleasure.
We’ve soaked in geothermal hot ponds among algae-coated sea turtles; and taken our SCUBA tanks into the freshwater caves at Kiholo Bay known as The Queen’s Bath, strapping rocks to our chests upon realizing we’d forgotten our weights.
We’ve been offroading down many an unnamed path, bumping along in wonder to see what we might find next!
We’ve gallivanted like children across white sand, naked under a penetrating full moon at midnight, where not another soul existed but ours and the Night’s.
We have loved and explored this island and made it our home. Now we are ready for our next assignment: a whole new world to discover.
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About a year ago, Chris showed me that stored in his iPhone, he has pages upon pages of notes documenting every one of these amazing places, all of these awesome things to do! He has listed the driving distance and time from Kona to get there, the type of activity one can expect to engage in, what equipment one will need, whether 4-wheel drive is necessary, the difficulty level, and then some. In essence, he has already written the Table of Contents of a masterful reference for thrill-seeking visitors! Meanwhile, I have taken thousands of photographs of all our adventures to accompany the stories I’ve written, which I began posting to my blog, Dreaming In Real Time, shortly after I moved to the island. I told Chris – adamantly and excitedly - that we essentially had the well-endowed skeleton of a unique travel guide – (one that could easily be turned into a series of guides for places all over the world) - for the more adventurous travelers. What would make our books different than others is that it they would not only provide the technical and geographical details of the activities listed. But in addition to following in our proverbial tracks and creating their own stories, readers could share in our stories, too! The personal element would add something in the way of connection to readers, and potentially their own connections to the places & activities, and to one another.
Secondly, there is a common thread in each of our stories – in our adventures themselves – that I don’t believe is featured in any other guide book or on any travel channel series yet created: A beautiful, 6 year old golden retriever named Ginger! She is our third counterpart, and goes everywhere with us! She loves the thrill of feeling the world around her – smelling it, rolling down its hills, diving into its purity, racing over its wild plains, (rolling in its dead stuff). And our collective experiences, as three, make them far more special than if any one of us was missing. I’ve even considered gearing our guides toward people who want their DOGS to enjoy life in the great outdoors with them! The pet industry rakes in something upwards of $35 billion a year, and from what I understand, a blossoming part of that relates to dog-friendly accommodations all over the world, from posh hotels with doggy spas to Fido-fabulous rustic resorts!
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While I am extremely independent, and have done the majority of my traveling and living alone to this point, I feel that I would only be half of the two-person team you need for your campaign to save tourism in Queensland. In this regard, Chris and I would come as a package! We are both used to living under extreme budgetary constraints; the salary and living conditions you’re offering would be enough for ten of him and ten of me. And if travel expenses were an issue, we would find a way to get the other one of us there and back. But if you’re open to being a bit flexible in what you had originally envisioned, let me tell you how great Chris and I could be together, as both the male and female perspective, each bringing something unique to the one collective of our shared voice. Just think: hiring us both (and “Us” together) could double the effect of the campaign!
Chris is the driver and navigator, the finder of adventure, the detailed mind, the map decoder, the strong and brave leader! He has traveled all over the world, from The Serengeti in Africa to the jungles of South America. He has even been to Australia and has dived the Great Barrier Reef. He is brilliant and extraordinary at everything he does, and has a physical grace unlike any I’ve ever seen. Best of all, his enthusiasm and genuinely youthful spirit of excitement and wonder is contagious! More than anything else, Chris loves to SHOW others the places he has been, and SHARE with those of us lucky enough, the beauty he has witnessed and felt in his own heart. He will be successful at whatever career he chooses. But, like me, he knows his destiny doesn’t call for a suit and tie, a cubicle housing one lonely plant, and a lunch hour for which one must clock out and back in. Drudgery and mundane will not do for either Chris or me. We need – and are perfectly suited to have – The Best Job in The World!
I am the open channel, the seer of unfolding energy and connection between us and the world in which we live, play, and let ourselves be wild! I am the artist, the photographer, writer, and communicator! Together, we are a dynamic, eternally childlike duo, with enough passion for life, nature, and especially the ocean to fuel a rocket ship to other worlds!
Both of us are extremely fit, not because we pencil time to work out into our otherwise busy days; but because activity is our very way of life! We are free and fast, moving in and out of Nature’s amorphous landscapes not as mere observers, but as breathing pieces and working parts of its form and function.
I swim across Kailua Bay most days at sunset with nothing but my body ‘on’. I don’t wear fins, a mask or snorkel, or even goggles. I do all of my hiking barefooted, having turned my feet tough enough to carry me over rough lava rock, scalding sand and even parking lots full of broken glass. I run ten laps around a standard soccer field many days a week, also barefooted. I keep my feet naked, vulnerable to the world beneath them, so that I can feel its energy directly, with no barrier. I spend the summers in Colorado, where I bike, walk, and run everywhere I go. I have tons of care-taking, pet- and house-sitting experience to boot!
There is nothing Chris cannot do. He can hold his breath for up to 4 minutes, and is a naturally graceful and calm free-diver. He plays virtually every sport to professional standards. He was a sponsored wake boarder in California where he grew up on the Colorado River. He is a level five tennis champion, a professional level pool player, a master at ping-pong, and will inevitably kick the pants off any opponent in just about any and every game. That I can keep up with Chris at all makes me proud; his strength makes me bolder.
We are both lovers of all things Nature and Science-related, and have insatiable appetites for learning-through-living. We are both known for bringing many people together who may otherwise never meet, and can captivate an audience individually, but not as well as when unified. Many who know me, (myself included), consider communicating my greatest talent and one of my strongest attributes. I can connect with both people and animals on many levels, some broad and abstract; and through numerous methods encompassing the relay of literal, visual and emotional information.
We are both burgeoning underwater photographers! My most ultimate dream in the whole world and for all my life is to swim with whales, photograph them, and write about the communion that ensues.
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So. This is my application. This is how I communicate: with my whole heart, my whole self, my whole being. This is my plea: Help destiny come to fruition. I know beyond knowing that, not only is this meant to be. It is meant to be…Absolutely. Utterly. Beautiful.
