Living in Kilauea now, I decided to check out one of the local beaches, Rock Quarry or Kahili Beach. There are two bumpy dirt roads on either side of the Kilauea Stream (which I later kayaked!) Valley that lead down to the beach. It's easiest to access from the southern dirt road off of Wailapa Road. However, my first foray down to the beach was walking down the northern dirt access road past a monstrous house going up. You come out to an incredible view of the river mouth opening to the beach with an ideal picnic spot of cool shade and lush grass. I decided to explore further up the coast to my left. I found lots of rocks and a trail that went over ancient lava formations until I came across some amazing tidal pools in the rocks. I suggest coming here ONLY when the ocean is calm and the tide is low. There were several stealth waves that came out of nowhere and got me wet. Quite an adventure and not for the faint-of-heart. There was at least one nice-sized lava pool to sit in near the end and close to the cliffs that appeared to be the safest. I would be very careful in any of the others. I opted not to get in any and kept to the high ground. On the way back, I took some photos of some old dumped equipment, probably left over from the sugarcane plantation days.
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The Greeks Yesterday I posted to Facebook about this interesting documentary about a peculiar man who retired to simply skate. Here is what I said in my post, followed by the video, courtesy of NYT after a successful Kickstarter campaign. A different kind of retirement. Summary: "Slomo" used to be a doctor. An old man once told him to "Do what you want." As his eyesight started failing, he decided to "retire" and reinvent himself as someone who skates everyday down the San Diego boardwalk. He's perfected the art of skating slowly, tapping into the acceleration we feel as we glide on the earth's surface around the center of the earth (for an explanation, see about the 9:00 minute mark or so). He says he gets called all kinds of things, and thinks people react in different ways (mostly positive) to seeing someone doing exactly what they want to be doing. Pretty inspiring. After accepting the advice to "do what you want to," 'SloMo' identifies the next step as figuring out what you want (let alone for now what makes you successful). As I've mentioned in a previous post, I continue to struggle with a similar about wants in life, namely Who Am I? and What is my purpose? Emily reminded me of a therapy technique used to identify what we want. The theory behind it is that our emotions, both negative and positive, come from our core desires. Put another way, our emotions are expressions of what we want.
The exercise is relatively simple, although you will want to write some things down or have a patient partner there to listen and help trace the pattern. Here is the step-by-step process:
Think of emotions as layers of an onion. Each layer is peeled away to reveal another emotion until you reach a core state of being where you desire to be for a long time, if not forever. For most, this is complete and utter contentment, joy, peace, love or happiness. The purpose of the exercise is to not simply uncover your core desire. It is to show you how your emotional reaction to a situation is actually in your own self-interest in getting what you want. Your core desire is just hidden in many layers. This helps in understanding your emotions and how they serve your ultimate purpose. Try it out next time you have an intense emotion that you're not sure where it came from. What might initially appear as destructive behavior might lead to something more constructive. One thing I was concerned about coming to Kauai was being able to play team sports. Well, it turns it out is has not been much of a problem at all!
I may have overdone it, however, as I didn't stretch my hamstrings well on Tuesday night, and in rainy weather I twerked, er, tweaked my lower right back muscle, possibly my interior oblique. I tried to play basketball the next night, which - surprise, surprise! - wasn't a good idea. Looks like it'll be several days off nursing a pulled lower back before I'm back at it. Some light stretching, laying on my back with knees at 90-degree angles, ibuprofen, and as little lifting as possible! It feels a lot like being sick... But boy, has it been fun! |
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