Was it Hawaii or was it just me?

Hawaii

“Maybe stories are just data with a soul”. Brene Brown

     I was in my early 30s when I had the opportunity to travel to Hawaii for the very first time. The year before I had treated myself to a 2 week vacation in Tahiti. I met a gal on that trip whom I quickly befriended in the sec0nd week. She lived in northern California, I in New York. After the trip we kept in touch through writing letters. When she wrote me that she booked herself into a motel in Maui for 2 weeks I got the brilliant idea that I could ask her if she wanted company. Though she was married she explained her husband did not like going on vacations. That seemed strange to me but I accepted that for the truth. I sent her a check for my half of the cost of the motel for two weeks since she had already paid for it. Did I mention that the trip included a rental car for the two weeks? She would be the designated driver since I had not driven a car in years. Did I mention I lived in Manhattan where you didn't need to have a car? I flew to San Francisco where we met in the airport and together flew on to Hawaii. Once we settled in to our motel that first day, we then drove a mile down the road to an outdoor fruit stand. Before we could buy some fruit for the next day's breakfast, a man came up to us holding a crate of papayas. He handed them to us as he said Aloha! We were taken by surprise. We asked him how much for the fruit. He said, no charge. This is the Aloha spirit welcoming you to Hawaii. It would appear that we were in for a great 2 weeks on this most beautiful island.

     The first week went okay for the most part. It wasn't until the very end of the first week that we started to not get along. I had met a cute guy while waiting for her outside a convenience store. He drove up on his motorcycle. We chatted & he asked for my number when it was time for me to leave. In those days no one had cel phones so I told him where I was staying & he could reach me through switchboard. In the time we chatted outside the store I found out he lived on Maui and had the day off. All I knew was that he had a great tan, long hair in a ponytail, drove a motorcycle and owned a sports car, and seemed to like me.

     It never occurred to me that she was jealous. Within a day or two of my meeting him, she and I fought. She told me I was no longer allowed in the car that I helped pay for. It was okay with me because by now he was picking me up. Once he heard how horrible she was to be around, he offered to show me around Maui. I had the best few days with him and then he needed to drop me off for a few days but promised to be in touch when his work was done. Buses to the beach now became my mode of transportation. She and I would individually return to the motel room at night to sleep. The tension was in the air. We did very little talking.

    On my second to last morning, with the papayas all eaten up, I decided to go to the motel restaurant for breakfast. I had never stepped foot in there until then. I sat down at a table by myself. I noticed a woman looking at me from another table. She was old and very pale. She waved to me to come over. I did and she invited me to join her at her table as she was alone too. I noticed there was a book on the table. We chatted a bit. In conversation she mentioned her room number. At The time I didn't give that piece of information a second thought. I did notice that when I told of my troubles with this gal roommate, she would open the book to a page and read from it. She was the Bible lady, as I don't remember her name. Having been brought up Jewish and not particularly religious, I was not familiar with the Bible or the psalms. I just smiled, ate my breakfast, and said goodbye.

    I then took the bus once again to the beach. I had a lovely day though I thought it strange I never heard from my guy again. It's always strange when you have a great time with someone and then never hear from them. I was tired at the end of my last full day in Maui so I returned to the motel. I put my room key in the lock and opened the door. In front of me was standing a strange guy in his underwear. He was as shocked as I was. I asked him what he was doing in my room. He said it was his room. He had just checked in that afternoon.

     It turned out she checked out a day early and was refunded the cash for the last day. She walked away with my half of that cash.

I needed a shower. Then I remembered the old lady and her room number. I knocked on her door and she answered. I told her what happened and she invited me in. I showered and got my belongings from housekeeping. It was a bit shocking to see my clothes not in the suitcase I came with but in large trash bags. Fortunately my return ticket and my suitcase were all in the bags. I used her room phone to call another friend I had made there in my second week. He came in his car and picked me up and I thanked the Bible lady for her help.

   I knew that I had experienced something special in meeting her, the Bible lady, the way I did. Hawaii was this very magical place where special things happened. I was giving all the credit to the place, Hawaii, not necessarily at the time considering that I could have been anywhere in distress and had the experience. The experience I had was that a higher power, God, was/is looking out for me.

In hindsight, it was like I needed to meet all the people along the way that I met in Maui, including the roommate, to help me realize I am not alone. None of us are. We have a connection to our Source and sometimes we lose sight of that or don't even know it at all. Hawaii was a gift. Though it was fraught with some crazy stuff, I survived the trip.

Update: I never saw the Bible lady again. I did get a postcard nine months after I returned from Hawaii from my guy. He sent me a beautiful picture postcard apologizing for not being able to contact me until now. As he told it, right after he dropped me off & went into the fields to check on his plants, he got arrested for growing marijuana. He was in jail for 9 months. When he got out, he wrote me. We never spoke or saw each other again.

I made another trip to Hawaii some years later. This time I went with someone I knew way better. My sister. We had a great time on the Big island.

I am grateful for all the opportunities I have had to travel and learn about other cultures. Sometimes we travel far just to be nudged to look within.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” ― Marcel Proust