Christmas Eve

John & Glenn's house near Captain Cook, Hawai'i

Even as we embrace the present, Gordon and I are exploring alternative futures.

Four years ago, our friends John and Glenn took a leap of faith toward warm ocean waters and part-of-the-year isolation by buying a house on the Big Island of Hawai’i. We’re grateful to be celebrating Solstice, Yule, Christmas, and the coming of the new calendar year with them here.

Gordon & Stephen by the koi pond, in the hula spirit

It’s indeed an island of contrasts. Such lushness and tropical beauty. Such stark volcanic ash. The largest number of growing zones in one place. The elements – fire, water, earth, air -- in high relief. All of them soft, and extreme.

John and Glenn have created a beautiful garden, complete with bananas, papayas, avocados, lemons, limes, spiders, toads, and exuberant fountains and ponds (that require lots of maintenance). Their house looks out over the ancient City of Refuge--the one place you could go, if you could run fast enough, when you did something wrong, and be forgiven. We could all use cities of refuge.

Near that city is some of the best snorkeling on the Island. And snorkeling, for me, is like a dream. I enter another reality. I can fly like in my childhood fantasies. And just when I think I’ve seen every color of luminous fish – green parrot fish, yellow angelfish, wild Picasso fish – there’s a black fish with opalescent stripes showing me how to swim and sway in a new way. Or a sea turtle blinking at me. Or an octopus curled up in a ball.

This is certainly a contrast to Christmases in Minnesota, where I grew up, and where, this year, they’re actually having a White Christmas. It seems a lot of folks who grew up with cold winters are loving being here -- surfing, snorkeling, sipping lilikoi margaritas.

Glenn & John enjoying sunset at Kealakekua Bay

Best wishes for balance and peace to those celebrating everywhere.