The Slow Road

We must take adventures,

in order to know where we truly belong.

 

 

 





 

Last summer the hubs and I were able to go to Hawaii twice, once with the kids in February and once by ourselves in May. Working for an airline, we travel as often as our pocketbooks will allow. On our trip in May we rented a tandem kayak in Kailua, Oahu and paddled out to the little island in the foreground of this picture. I believe collectively they are called the Mokulua Islands and the one we landed on is called Moku Nui. On the right hand side you can see the beach, the middle of the island is a bird sanctuary and on the left is a beautiful little lagoon that has been carved out of the island by waves (but more on that later).

 

When we rented the kayak the guides gave us some very specific instructions on how to access the island, #1 for safety and #2 to help preserve the sanctuary. There were three little islands that were pretty close to each other. The first one that we came to was flat and pretty barren, so we decided to keep on paddling. The one in the background of the picture is completely off limits because the whole thing is a bird sanctuary. So we set our sites on Moku Nui.

 

We remembered that we were to access the island on the beach side, and we remembered not to cross over the middle of the island. We also remembered to watch the waves a couple of times before trying to cross any of the wet volcanic rock to avoid being swept out to sea. What we didn't remember was if we were supposed to paddle out to the first island, run parallel with the beach and then take a sharp left until we hit the beach of Moku Nui. Or, if we were supposed to paddle out until we had a straight shot of Moku Nui and then paddle parallel to the beach.

 

We did the second and quickly found that the first set of directions were the ones we were supposed to follow. We found ourselves mixing it up with waves that could topple our little kayak if we didn't fight to stay afloat. Looking at the picture, we were heading straight for the rock where the waves break on the corral, right where the dark blue water becomes aqua. So instead of paddling straight for the island we would have to turn our kayak and paddle into the wave, straighten out and paddle towards the island and then back into a wave again making little stair steps towards the island.

 

As the waves were battering us we thought about turning back, but by the time we discovered we were in trouble the waves had gotten pretty big and going back the way we came was more treacherous than continuing our journey. We couldn't turn towards Kailua because there was a narrow channel running between the beach of Kailua and the beach of Moku Nui that was perpendicular with our current location. Paddling straight for the shore of Kailua meant the very real possibility of being thrown into the coral and becoming beached. So we just kept paddling, digging in as deep as we could, knowing that with every paddle forward we were also being pushed back. Our progress was slow but long story short, we made it!

 

 

 



 

In the background of this picture you can see the waves that ran between the islands, they are only about half as big as the ones we were paddling into.

 

We rested for a bit and warmed up on the sun drenched beach and decided it was time for some more discovery. So we hiked along the volcanic rock until we found the little lagoon.

 

 

After testing the water and making sure we wouldn't be dragged from the lagoon out into the open sea we decided to jump in. We swam around with beautiful tropical fish and floated effortlessly in the rich warm salt water. The best part, we had the whole thing to ourselves. It was like we were the only two people alive on the planet. It was pure bliss!

 

I was thinking about this adventure last night as I was going over the events of the day. I had planned on waking up early and working out. I have been wanting to lose some weight for a while now, but in the past I have lost a good amount of weight, something happens and I become sad and I gain it all back again. I know what it takes to lose weight, but the getting sad part has halted me in my tracks. I am currently doing pretty well, as far as my mood is concerned, and the thought of getting to a sad place again scares me! So when my alarm went of yesterday morning that was the only thought in my mind. If I exercise, I will lose weight, I will get sad and I will gain it all back again which will just make me even more sad. So I hit snooze and that was the end of that.

 

I've decided to give myself a break. Instead of: constantly beating myself up with insults; restrictive diets that just make me cranky and cardio driven workouts I have chosen a more mindful approach. I will give myself time. Though I would have liked to have lost the weight yesterday, yesterday is gone and nothing will change that. I will move forward, making healthy food choices and expand my yoga practice. This, like my adventure to Moku Nui, may be the slow road, but it is a sustainable road. I may take two steps forward and one step back, but this is still progress. In the end I will arrive at my own little private island and I will be a better, happier person for choosing the slow road.