🌊 We live about 1½ miles from the ocean. You know when the swell is big when two things happen.

  1. The surf can be heard breaking against the cliffs…1½ miles away.
  2. The ocean looks corrugated, as the waves make their way in to the Maui shore…seen from 1½ miles away.
    ⚘

📻️ Those times when I arrive home but do not get out of the car as I am listening to something on the radio and don’t want to miss where it is going. This time The Moth Radio Hour on HPR1. ⚘

A Cardinal on the beach yesterday. I tried to also tried to catch a photograph of a Common Sandpiper (Hawaiian: Ōpae ʻula) that was searching for small crabs to eat, but it was moving too quickly.

A small bird with a red head and white body stands on a sandy beach with the ocean in the background, a small wave breaking. In the foreground are a couple of small rocks, possible old coral now bleached a sandy colour.

Still morning
Quiet;
A resting for the soul.

Sun
Bird song
No wind
No noise save the ringing in one’s head.

Let this stillness take you;
Don’t go looking for distractions;
The quiet that this morning offers will be gone soon enough.

Take it,
let it touch your heart -
and find that stillness there at any time.

🥶 That emoji might be a little extreme for the temperatures here on Maui, at least close to sea level, but the morning air has got a lot more chilly in the last few weeks. I for one like these cool, fresh mornings. It balances the days and means that I’m not constantly looking for shade or a place to cool off. Days are still warm, 76°F/26°C, before dropping off again as the sun goes down. ⚘

This is writing,

The best part of any big Thanksgiving gathering? Slipping away from it for a few minutes to stand outside in the cold.

~ Steve Edwards

🛖 With the ”Holidays” now officially upon us, at least here in the US, for the next month if I am wanted I can be found in a remote hut somewhere on the side of a mountain. ⚘

I discovered this album on Apple Music a couple of evenings ago, and love it. I have it playing as dinner preparation is under way.

Memories of Home by John Scofield & Dave Holland

A record album cover textured, dark green background with the text John Scofield, Dave Holland, and Memories of Home along with the ECM logo.

Picturing Time

I love this recent post by Alexandra Wolfe about Time. Profound and special. It’s also a worthwhile reflection when all around you feels stuck or not going well - in time it will all turn to dust, it will all be a distant memory. Anyway, Alex’s post felt all the more pertinent to me as I had just returned from a visit to the island of O’ahu. In the Hawai’i island chain, O’ahu is older than Maui.

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🛣️ One thing that I love about public holidays - quiet roads. The Hana Hwy, which runs near to our home and is normally busy at this time of day as visitors head out to the east side of Maui, is currently quiet.

The island is feeling full and busy at the moment - I wrote about this a couple of years ago. Visitors are here for the Thanksgiving week. However, at this early hour the highway is still very quiet, and with it the land, the ‘āina feels as though it has a moment to rest. ⚘

✍️ Another full day. I’m missing writing. ⚘

😒 Not a fun day, at least not in my book. I sit now at the far end of it wondering where it all went? Little was achieved that I wanted to get done…what little I have done was attempted at the far end of the day when I was definitely not firing on all cylinders.

What happened? A day of constantly moving pieces, and I was never sure where they were moving to. I hope that tomorrow will be better, though at the moment I’m not sure that it will?

I see that the Holidays are just round the corner. Maybe that has something to do with it?! ⚘

This evening’s sunset.

A serene autumn sunset casts a warm glow on the horizon, and above that is a cool, clear sky with a small smudge of cloud. All of this is over a landscape with silhouetted trees and a roof visible in the distance.

🐋️ Saturday morning on Oahu, sitting on the balcony of our hotel having a morning coffee and looking out over the ocean, I saw my first whale sighting of the season. One, maybe two spouts of water blown into the air. The Humpback whales are returning to Hawaii’s waters for the winter to calf. ⚘

This morning’s double rainbow. 🌈

A vibrant double rainbow arcs over a lush green lawn and garden landscape under a cloudy sky. In the far distance a grey ocean can be seen under a cloudy, rainy sky.

😖 Waking this morning, back home, with what I will call a Travel Hangover, that feeling I get after returning from time away involving a lot of travel. However, this was just an overnight trip to the island of Oahu with some friends, to support my wife’s son in an event that he was hosting.

Maybe it was that we were on the go for most of our time away? Or maybe it was simply having to navigate airports even though the flight was a quick hop, skip and a jump from Maui?

Whatever the cause, today will be spent landing back here on Maui. ⚘

Looking out at Diamond Head, Honolulu.

Auto-generated description: A scenic view showcases a vast green park with scattered trees and people, set against the backdrop of a rugged mountain, which is Diamond Head in Honolulu, under a clear blue sky.

Rainbow over the hills above Honolulu this afternoon. 🌈

Auto-generated description: A lush hillside town is seen under a cloudy sky with a faint rainbow arching over the landscape, and a park with people and a distinctive arched structure in the foreground.

🌆 I’m not a city person, but I notice and enjoy the stimulation that I get from visits to the big city.

In Hawaii’s big city, Honolulu. ⚘

🌧️ The microclimates of Maui. We have woken up to low cloud, wind and torrential rain. I was in touch with a friend earlier who lives on the other side of the mountain, Haleakala, and he said that there is not a drop of rain there. ⚘