Exploration Discovery

As discussed, an incredibly interesting world. Do we dare to venture out and explore? Implications will always pretend to exist. What about us?

Be Good, Explore

The world and all its people is such a big place. While you may be waiting at a stoplight, someone on the other side of the world is going on a hike in a lush jungle, while others are waiting in a hospital in the middle of the night. Our minds aren’t meant to comprehend numbers in the thousands, let alone millions. Many of us live in population centers well into the millions, and we’re rapidly approaching ten billion human beings on the surface of the planet. It’s all unintelligible to our prehistoric brains. I chock up a lot of our global unconsciousness to these sheer numbers and the pure reality of our living situation on Earth. But it doesn’t make it insurmountable. And it also doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. It’s a wild world, and a big beautiful universe. Let’s be good to each other and explore.

Seeing the Choice

It’s astounding what you see in the world, depending on your focus. I was dismayed by people’s treatment today, and I can very easily focus on that. Or I can focus on the good I see, the good I’ve experienced. We face such a choice each day we live on this Earth. We just have to see the choice.

Return from Kauai

The feeling upon disembarking on a trip is one of excitement and anticipation. The sensations upon returning home are those of longing and peace, and hopefully, satisfaction.

Kauai is an amazing island: beautiful, adventurous, and difficult to placate. There is an incredible array of things to do: sailing, hiking, snorkeling, flying… the list goes on. The “grandmother” island treated us well, and I hope to return some day. Most of all, Kauai showcases the connection between past and present, old and young. It can’t fully be described; it must be experienced.

Every Earth Day

In many ways, the Earth is treacherous, dangerous, a rock floating in space, uncaring and irrelevant. In many other ways, it is humanity’s harbor, the one place we know that contains life, the single constant for our species. There is a oneness with the Earth, whether it’s romantic or not. We belong here, and we claw for our very survival here. Perhaps there’s duality in that, but the Earth is the only home we know. For that reason I honor it. Not just today, but every day of my life. Earth Day is not simply April 22nd each year, it’s every moment of every single life form’s existence. We are all one with the Earth.

Kauai Perfect Day

What is a perfect day? A perfect day is one that centers around the movement of the Earth and the Sun, one that begins with sunrise and winds down with sunset. It’s doing an unworldly hike with your life partner. A perfect day is exploring a tropical island paradise with them. It’s full of good food and good drinks, containing difficult parts and refreshing one. A perfect day revolves around experiencing all the day has to offer with your one and only Angel. A perfect day can happen in Kauai.

Paradise Now

I feel I learn more when I’m in a place for a few days. You start to get a feel for the local culture, the local land. Yet what I feel mostly every time is this: we’re all on the same land, on this same planet. We’re all privileged to be on Earth together, right now. We can learn a lot from each other, if we strive to be open. We’re all here in paradise right now right?

Garden Isle

It was another memorable day on the Garden Isle. Kauai is truly a spectacular scene. It epitomizes the magnificence that is Earth, that a place like this can exist on a planet, in our solar system, in the universe. Red dirt gives rise to vegetation and flowers on every inch of the island. Blue sea comes rushing to the sand. I don’t know much, but I can recognize a special place when I see one. Kauai represents some of the best Earth can offer.

Island Feeling

We’re experiencing island weather today. It’s purview for an island chain in the middle of the Pacific, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed it. There’s different weather on various sides of the island. The day is different depending on where you are. And meanwhile, you’re close to Mother Earth, perhaps closer than anywhere else. Although I’m only visiting, I appreciate this glimpse. It’s a nuanced perspective that can only be gained by staying here. Mahalo Kauai.

Grandmother Mysteries

My partner and I have picked up strange vibes from the island. How can we complain? Sunrise yoga, the sound of the waves continuously firm our room, a car to take us to the very different parts of the island.

Our yoga instructor called it the grandmother of the islands, as it’s the oldest. I thought that was apt at the time. And in a way it’s true. But there’s still energy here being created. There is, as I’ve come to identify it, the effervescent flow of aloha.

There also conflict here, between ancestry and commercialism. We’re trying to navigate it the best we can. I welcome openness and discussion around it, and do my best to produce the same.

Your mysteries abound Kauai. There is much to you, that is clear. Thank you for the welcome, and permit me to learn more about Mother Earth.

Aloha Kauai

Kauai is a peculiar place, and I’m still trying to get a pulse on the island. With a canyon trail that ended in a waterfall, off-roading to a secluded beach for sunset, and stopping in at local shops throughout the day, I imagine it was a very Kauai day, albeit different than the other major Hawaiian islands. The land and vegetation is beautiful. The sea seems more wild, as if to signify you’re on the edge of the chain, the last bastion until Taiwan. Thank you Kauai for an amazing first full day. I can’t wait to further tap into your unique flavor of aloha.

Travel day to a new island

Today I was privileged to enjoy a travel day, with a pleasant early afternoon flight eastward to Kauai. The timing and time change made transportation very easy. I watched the clouds drift by while I sat in my floating throne: the exit row seat of the airplane. How incredible is it that an “ordinary” person like me can afford to travel 500 miles per hour across three time zones to an island paradise?

Upon initial assessment, that’s what Kauai appears to be. It’s the fourth island in the Hawaiian chain I’ve had the honor to visit, and they are all different. There are certainly some slow peaceful vibes here reminiscent of the Big Island, as well as the touristic energy similar to parts of Maui.

I’m eager to explore more, to really get a feel for the climate here as we traverse the other parts of the island. There will be some simple relaxation time no doubt, but mostly, I want to learn and discover. That’s what travel is—the greatest education humans can pursue.

Biological Progression

Perhaps I’m simply fortunate, but I always return to family being the most important thing in life. Our biology predisposes us to seek and form meaningful relationships. I think most of us, on the planet, do. We choose to spend our time together, not alone. And if we extrapolate that, beyond our biology, I believe we’ll collectively reach a new plane. We truly can, through small steps, change the world.

Changing Soup

If we are indeed part of one universe soup, and we do in fact have free will, or agency, then our purpose is to better the composition of the soup. Any refinement also improves our own situation, because we’re in the soup, and perhaps that’s where we get caught up. But we’re just one part, one small minuscule component of it. The point is the soup. If we can view it holistically, as part of it, its composition is blinding, overwhelming. And we can feel our unbreakable connection to it, to everything. Our purpose is beyond ourselves; it’s the soup. Or put another way, we can change the world.

Learning the Universe

I marvel at our lack of understanding of the universe. We are indeed clever monkeys, having discovered calculus and physics and politics and economics and philosophy. We resist the urge to lord over the other animals we see on this planet. And yet, we don’t know if life exists outside our planet’s atmosphere, let alone our solar system. We may have discovered the aforementioned disciplines, but have not truly figured them out: there are unsolved equations, properties of particles we don’t understand, a lack of social optimization or distribution of goods, and unanswered deep questions. Who are we? Why are we here? What is the universe? We are only at the beginning. That can be exciting or daunting. It’s up to us to collectively decide.

Hiking Solutions

Our bodies are engineered to walk within nature. This is oxymoronic from an evolutionary perspective, because Earth is nature, and humans have never been separated from it until very recently, in evolutionary terms. For most of our species’ history, we have been one with nature. I suspect this is why I enjoy hiking so much. The filtered light through the trees, the feel of dirt and mud and rock on my feet, the sound of songbirds and water. It returns my body to what it was designed for. What if the solution, the starting point to solving our global problems, was simply to return to nature more? For on the trail, perspective feels true. Who I am and where I am seems simple and clear: I am a human being walking the Earth.

Universal Immersion

There is so much I don’t know, and so much to learn and experience. I’m struck by that now after looking back on my day: being blown away by the spring blooms of flowers throughout my walk in Mountain View; feeling incredibly grateful and emotional at seeing a good friend; thoroughly enjoying a Wikipedia rabbit hole tonight. The world is beautiful, the universe mystical. I know nothing, but feel immersed within it all, a part of it. We have so much to be thankful for. Collectively, can we see that?

Considering Easter

Truthfully, Easter has never been my holiday. I don’t particularly have any affinity for the Christian tradition; but, it had always been a day to gather with family and enjoy a good meal, and to welcome the coming of spring (or some years, the full on coming of summer). Today it was that again, and I’m so grateful for it. We should think very critically and very carefully about our traditions; to throw them away wantonly would be foolish. There may be aspects of our heritage we no longer identify with, but there’s also likely many things that have continued for a reason. Easter was something I was glad to partake in today. To the coming of spring, and to all the new life we will experience moving forward.

That Hiking Thing

There’s something spiritual about hiking a mountain. Or a hill, in my case today. But we are meant to be out in nature. Not even “out in;” we are nature, we are part of nature and this Earth. One short hike provides a glimpse of that oneness. It’s the exertion, and the air and the scenery and the clambering on the crust of the Earth itself. How amazing the surface of this planet is, how lucky we are. Hiking simply proves it’s one big beautiful amazing world.

Puppy Dog Friend

They say dogs are humans’ best friends. Although my pup certainly still annoys me sometimes, he has never wavered in loyalty since the day we took him home. I’ve enjoyed taking him to the park to play fetch the past few days. In a way we’ve grown together, as he’s kind of an old man now, and I am in some ways too. Love you puppy dog. Cheers to more.