Just Looking

 

Twin Waterfalls

Low Altitude

Carrying Surf Boards instead of IPods

Hawaiian Floral

Fun on the Boat

Dusk – Waikeke Beach

Circling the Storm

Photo by Susan H. Hajec – Hawaii

Today is Monday. I am experiencing it as a gentle, easy day. A day to look.  A day to follow my own gaze. I have a “to do” list but there is not a rubber-stamped Rush  upon it. And I am following my rhythm for the day.

 Making a trip to Hawaii and visiting four of the five main islands was a trip of a lifetime and a dream come true for Tom and me. We were at the finest of Hawaiian Luaus on the evening of June 19, 2005, which was our fortieth wedding anniversary. Anniversary couples and newly marrieds were invited down to the grassy performance area after the dinner  and show to dance to Hawaiian music and be feted by the other attendees.  How did the stars shine so bright that night?

 

Earlier that day, we were escorted by helicopter pilot, just the two of us, up and over the bountious, green  island of Maui, above its tropical rainforests, along its sea-soaked and white capped coast lines, and rather adventuresomely, into some of it caverns and canyon rock formations.

 

The pilot’s intent was to get us near some of the beautiful waterfalls. But the weather whipped up and an unexpected storm gale blew in quickly. As the copter blew and swaggered in the “wind-drifts”, I began to see the scene from *M*A*S*H where copters fly out over the mountain ridge.  We have video footage of the sheer rock formation in front of us that the pilot needed to get above, against downdrafts of wind into the canyon. He made several approaches to “rise-above”.  Looking at the rock right in front of us from a level vantage point, with rain hitting the windshields that required rapid-speed wipers, I began fearing this was not the air-trip I had in mind.

 

But the pilot’s  professionalism and accuracy in flying techniques brought us out safely and for the rest of our unforgettable trip, we viewed waterfalls from feet-upon-the-land level.  There was so much to do, see, hear, and experience. We knew we were just getting a snippet of the good there was for us to experience.

 

And that’s just it. We did look…..we did see…… we experienced good in many ways in everything. The genuine, respectful and friendly way the Hawaiian people interacted with us made us feel as though we shared their own land with them. The bounty of beauty throughout the islands natural settings was a feast of goodness. The taste of the tropical foods and drinks enhanced our enjoyment  of the common experience of eating. The breezy and humid climate soaked our skin cells with renewed goodness. The sounds of the birds played melodies throughout the day and hummed a soft lulabye at night.

 

On a busy day in my everyday circumstances, I may be looking  — but it can too easily become a looking past in order to achieve a goal. I could be doing a near-miss kind of looking where some pre-judgment actually prevents me from seeing what is actually there. Or you might find me in a  blank stare, too engrossed in my own internal confusion or anxiety,  that I get an “interference” reading on my looking-screen.

 

That wasn’t the kind of looking I was doing in Hawaii. In his book, “Stillness Speaks”, Eckhart Tolle asks who is doing the loooking when you look at a tree or a human being in stillness. He suggests it is something deeper than the person. In fact, he states that “Consciousness is looking at its creation”.

 

The Bible says that when God created the world, he stated that it was good. Tolle says that is what you see when you look from stillness without thought.  You see good.

 

Today, I am not in Hawaii. But I am looking from stillness today at ordinary things and places and people in my life. And I see that they are good. For that, I am grateful.