Dear friends and family,
I MOVED TO HAWAI’I.
I’m starting a blog. To me this all sounds self-indulgent, but I would like a way to express what I’m doing so golly me blogging it is. Golly me. What the f-
I’m about to smoke a hand rolled herby (my new name for my new favorite folly which is hand rolled actual herbs! It’s so genius but more on this later) but am waiting on my roomie upstairs. Her name’s Kianga, and we live in a red bungalow on the red road on this red rock which is all so perfect since they say this island is tied to the root chakra, which for you non-yogis is tied to the color red. Of course, that might mean nothing to you.
Our home is on the ocean and the waters are lively. There’s lava rock around me, and we have avocado and banana and starfruit and mulberry and sirnam cherry (which are SO yummy) trees in the yard. There are papaya trees also, but I just learned that they’re GMO. This makes me sad but they’re still yummy and wild pigs eat the fruit in the nighttime. They sound like people when they walk by my room.
It gets dark at 6:00, days are short here. Right now I hear coqui frogs sing.
Coqui frogs are these really small frogs but there’s so many and they live in the jungle-y parts of the island. The whole island is not a jungle; north of here is a town, north of there is a forest lush with waterfalls and cliffs, north of there is a valley that’s sacred, and to its left is a forest of rainbow eucalyptus, and inland is a valley with green rolling hills and ranches and horses and cattle, and westward are dry beaches with rich people and white sand and sea turtles and bright fish and dolphins, and south is the southernmost point in the states and the most spectacular landscape I’ve seen, and looping back around brings you back to the jungle which is lush and wet and rainforest-like and this is the place where I stay.
Where I stay is a region called Puna. I think I found my perfect place. People here are called Punatics and our local t-shirts say things like “We’re here cause we’re not all there.” Just my kind o’ crazy. There are many types of people here (I even met a Republican) but everyone’s spiritual and even though like anywhere there’s violence, the whole town operates on love. We give each other rides and hear each other’s stories and share what we have and drink lots of kombucha and when we drink that kombucha we put the glass on a placemat that has sacred symbols on it to increase the life force in the drink. WINK! We have symbols on our water bottles, and dreads in our hair, and if you were here with me on a Sunday we’d wake up in time for ecstatic dance and we’d get dressed in our kookiest outfits (well, we’d probably be wearing something mainstream like khakis and they’d probably be clean and our legs would be shaved and we’d stick out like fresh-from-the-mainland sore thumbs) and we’d hitch a ride to meet our neighbors for church. The church here in Puna’s the dance floor, and we’d shake for two hours and if you were still with me after that we’d hitch rides to the beach and get naked and swim in the ocean. The ocean is very intense here, and someone told me she represents the unconscious mind.
A friend of mine made his twelfth rescue Sunday. No joke here, this is serious work.
After the beach, we’d walk to some green grass nearby where everyone meets for potluck and drums. We’d hang out and relax on the lawn, maybe do some yoga, practice balancing on the slack line, drink a coconut, share a laugh, and stare out at cliffs overlooking the ocean. There’s something magical happening here. I am coming alive.
I’ve definitely found my town on this planet. If only I could find my –
Place.
Did I mention the volcanoes? In the middle of this island are five. This is hard to believe, but where it only takes one day to drive one whole loop ‘round the island there’s five volcanoes on this land. They are active. One is so active that she’s erupting and spilling new lava right now to make earth. The lava flow is moving toward the town where I’m staying, but no one really knows where she’s headed, and instead of scaring me this drew me in. That volcanic energy could bring me to life.
Like the herbal spliffs, though, more on that later.
So there. I have started a blog. I’ve no idea what this will become. I just know that I wanted a place to write down what I’m learning and to write letters to all of you. I want to write letters to my mom, and to my sisters, and to my family and friends and to God cause we’ve been fighting lately since sometimes I want to be bad. I want to write to my dad, and to my friend from high school that I haven’t seen in a decade but who’s face keeps appearing to me lately. I want to write to the rocks, and the waters, and the plants and the trees who I’m just now at last getting to know. I want to write letters that you all want to read, but you know how that goes…
We shall see.
Either way, this is me. And this is day one of an attempt to capture the musings of a girl in the making, a butterfly to be. I am becoming myself out here in this jungle. One day and many many mistakes at a time. I accept now that I cannot be perfect, nor do I want to be, and that the imperfect journey from her to me is one worth documenting, you see. I am not who I will be tomorrow.
Journey with me.
In search of my wild woman, &becoming –
Alexandra
<3 Sat nam and ocean love!
I MOVED TO HAWAI’I.
I’m starting a blog. To me this all sounds self-indulgent, but I would like a way to express what I’m doing so golly me blogging it is. Golly me. What the f-
I’m about to smoke a hand rolled herby (my new name for my new favorite folly which is hand rolled actual herbs! It’s so genius but more on this later) but am waiting on my roomie upstairs. Her name’s Kianga, and we live in a red bungalow on the red road on this red rock which is all so perfect since they say this island is tied to the root chakra, which for you non-yogis is tied to the color red. Of course, that might mean nothing to you.
Our home is on the ocean and the waters are lively. There’s lava rock around me, and we have avocado and banana and starfruit and mulberry and sirnam cherry (which are SO yummy) trees in the yard. There are papaya trees also, but I just learned that they’re GMO. This makes me sad but they’re still yummy and wild pigs eat the fruit in the nighttime. They sound like people when they walk by my room.
It gets dark at 6:00, days are short here. Right now I hear coqui frogs sing.
Coqui frogs are these really small frogs but there’s so many and they live in the jungle-y parts of the island. The whole island is not a jungle; north of here is a town, north of there is a forest lush with waterfalls and cliffs, north of there is a valley that’s sacred, and to its left is a forest of rainbow eucalyptus, and inland is a valley with green rolling hills and ranches and horses and cattle, and westward are dry beaches with rich people and white sand and sea turtles and bright fish and dolphins, and south is the southernmost point in the states and the most spectacular landscape I’ve seen, and looping back around brings you back to the jungle which is lush and wet and rainforest-like and this is the place where I stay.
Where I stay is a region called Puna. I think I found my perfect place. People here are called Punatics and our local t-shirts say things like “We’re here cause we’re not all there.” Just my kind o’ crazy. There are many types of people here (I even met a Republican) but everyone’s spiritual and even though like anywhere there’s violence, the whole town operates on love. We give each other rides and hear each other’s stories and share what we have and drink lots of kombucha and when we drink that kombucha we put the glass on a placemat that has sacred symbols on it to increase the life force in the drink. WINK! We have symbols on our water bottles, and dreads in our hair, and if you were here with me on a Sunday we’d wake up in time for ecstatic dance and we’d get dressed in our kookiest outfits (well, we’d probably be wearing something mainstream like khakis and they’d probably be clean and our legs would be shaved and we’d stick out like fresh-from-the-mainland sore thumbs) and we’d hitch a ride to meet our neighbors for church. The church here in Puna’s the dance floor, and we’d shake for two hours and if you were still with me after that we’d hitch rides to the beach and get naked and swim in the ocean. The ocean is very intense here, and someone told me she represents the unconscious mind.
A friend of mine made his twelfth rescue Sunday. No joke here, this is serious work.
After the beach, we’d walk to some green grass nearby where everyone meets for potluck and drums. We’d hang out and relax on the lawn, maybe do some yoga, practice balancing on the slack line, drink a coconut, share a laugh, and stare out at cliffs overlooking the ocean. There’s something magical happening here. I am coming alive.
I’ve definitely found my town on this planet. If only I could find my –
Place.
Did I mention the volcanoes? In the middle of this island are five. This is hard to believe, but where it only takes one day to drive one whole loop ‘round the island there’s five volcanoes on this land. They are active. One is so active that she’s erupting and spilling new lava right now to make earth. The lava flow is moving toward the town where I’m staying, but no one really knows where she’s headed, and instead of scaring me this drew me in. That volcanic energy could bring me to life.
Like the herbal spliffs, though, more on that later.
So there. I have started a blog. I’ve no idea what this will become. I just know that I wanted a place to write down what I’m learning and to write letters to all of you. I want to write letters to my mom, and to my sisters, and to my family and friends and to God cause we’ve been fighting lately since sometimes I want to be bad. I want to write to my dad, and to my friend from high school that I haven’t seen in a decade but who’s face keeps appearing to me lately. I want to write to the rocks, and the waters, and the plants and the trees who I’m just now at last getting to know. I want to write letters that you all want to read, but you know how that goes…
We shall see.
Either way, this is me. And this is day one of an attempt to capture the musings of a girl in the making, a butterfly to be. I am becoming myself out here in this jungle. One day and many many mistakes at a time. I accept now that I cannot be perfect, nor do I want to be, and that the imperfect journey from her to me is one worth documenting, you see. I am not who I will be tomorrow.
Journey with me.
In search of my wild woman, &becoming –
Alexandra
<3 Sat nam and ocean love!