Keeping Hawaii Home...

For the first time in my life, I was allowed the privilege to experience the end of a season and the beginning of another. As an island girl growing up under an almost constant blue and sunny sky, life takes place in the same manner every day, all year long.  Yes, some days are cloudy and rainy, and some days a little chilly, but otherwise we live under the same familiar sky all year long.  I have been blessed to have travelled and experienced the fresh and crisp air of a Springtime away from home, a miraculous bursting of the colors of the Fall, the early beginnings of a blistery Winter season, and, of course the recognizable Summer that I knew so well.  But never was I a witness to the moment of change; when one season ends and another begins.

This summer in Minnesota allowed me that vision.  I could swear that it happened in a matter of a day.  One day I witnessed a few green leaves on a tree do a switch to yellow and red.  The next day I opened a door to 55 degrees of cold and said good bye to the day before which enjoyed a 94.  And there it was….FALL. I cherished the moment and appreciated it in wonder while the residents around just lived another day and prepared for the new chapter in their lives.To me, I had just seen “Awesome!” This was the divide between an island life and life overseas.

I captured the moments and before long, it was time to journey home to Honolulu.  It is always a bittersweet time for I have become accustomed to Minnesota’s face.  We stopped in Los Angeles to pick up more passengers and then I heard it!  Hawaii was in the air.  Just by the voices in the air of the new passengers that boarded, I knew the Aloha when I heard it.  I was on my way “home”, home to the life of an eternal summer. Arrival at the Honolulu Airport has a magic of its’ own; for the malihini, a spirit of welcome, for the kamaaina, an invisible warm embrace that says “you are home”. I believe that this is Hawaii’s secret way of “Keeping Hawaii Home” for her children.