My Soul's Home

I know our soul is within us...alive & well ....somewhere...isn't it? Well six years ago I found the home of my soul. It's approximately 6,000 miles west of my home and not within my body. It lies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and is a tiny island called Maui. Being the second largest in the Hawaiian Island chain it is visited often. We (my husband & I) have visited Maui each year for the past 6 years consecutively. How does that happen you ask? I ask myself the same question every year. This may be the first year (2010) that we break that streak....thanks to the downward spiraling economy.



I remember our first trip to Maui well. A tiny dusting of snow in Boston set off a chain reaction of delays as it does in airports. To say the least we were very late getting to LAX and missed the flight to Maui. Having to stay in L.A. that night and NOT wake up in Maui on my first trip to the island and on our 20th wedding anniversary was not making me a very happy camper to say the least. But as I have learned you can't change the weather or things out of your control. Sit back, chill and let it happen. We made it to Maui a day late...but hey...we were IN MAUI BABY!



My expectations for the trip were so high as I had waited all my life "to go to Hawaii." Since I was a kid I had wanted to "go to Hawaii". And here we were in Hawaii. Although when I am there I never call it Hawaii. I always call it Maui. Going to Maui. In Maui. Been to Maui. I never say Hawaii...weird huh?



I knew the moment I stepped into the open air airport I was home...and so was my soul. I had waited so long to be "there." How did I know I would like Maui that much? What had drawn me to that island and not the others? I may never know the answers to those questions. I have never visited the other islands in the chain. No need to. I am home in Maui. I have no desire to go to the others...well maybe the big island to see the "active" volcano.


Anyway, expectations being too high. I should have known by the delay in getting there that it wouldn't be a perfect trip. And really there isn't such a thing as a "perfect trip". I have also learned that there would be no fun & adventure that way! Near tropical storm like winds & rain blew across Maui as we were landing and picked up in intensity over the next several days. Where were my picture perfect blue skies, my awesome sunsets, my pristine beaches? They were cloudy, rainy skies, sun was choked out by more clouds at sunset and all beaches had mass erosion happening....paradise found?? I had waited many years for this trip and this is what I get?


In a few days the skies cleared and so did our moods. Mostly my mood. As I was having a major life meltdown over the weather. Learning lesson number one continued as I learned that I can't control the weather. We could be home in mid January celebrating 20 years of marriage riding snowmobiles in sub zero weather conditions. Okay, okay the weather in Maui was better, not perfect, but better than Maine. We managed to really enjoy our time and learned the island like the back of our hand. The helicopter ride, complete with video tape, was a major highlight.




As the days wound down I felt myself getting homesick. Not for Maine but for Maui as I was about to have to leave my new found love. I missed my home & family don't get me wrong but Maui has a pull on my soul like no place on earth. I continued to get more pouty as the day of departure grew nearer. As our plane lifted off Maui soil my heart sank and a tear rolled down my cheek as I looked out the plane window for the last glimpse of paradise as the sun was setting on another day. I didn't know when or how but I knew I would be back again.


And so the story goes...that was in January 2004. We have made a yearly trek, as I call it, to my soul's home every year since. I traded snowmobiling in northern Maine for 10 days in paradise for our anniversary. Who said I was a dummy? Ha! When the plane lands every year a smile widens across my face and my heart skips a beat. I am truly home there. I feel a sense of freedom and peace within that cannot be described. I love the air, the mountains, the sea, the beaches, the flip flops you can were every single day of your life! Most of all I enjoy the time I get to spend with my husband in a place we love with no distractions of work, bills, everyday life that we get caught up in and forget to take the time to be us. Aloha!