First Tribute … Kealakekua Bay (04/21/14)
RETURNING TODD to a PLACE of PEACE
… Bringing my brother back to the Big Island
“Tribute 01 … Kealakekua Bay”
When I first arrived on the Big Island back in November of 2003, Todd had already been there awhile, having traveled there himself for his own spiritual reasons. It wasn’t that difficult to find him, and we had indeed briefly met shortly after my arrival, and yet even though our reunion was a warm one, it was pretty obvious to us both that we each had “things to do”, and that those things were not going to involve sharing each other’s company. So I gave him a big hug and left his presence, eventually setting up shop about 30 miles north of him in Kailua-Kona. I knew where he was living — and he, me, and yet we never saw or heard from each other for the first several months of my stay.
Then, in early February of 2004, I was wandering the aisles of the local Borders bookstore (where I essentially lived during my 2 year “home-free” Hawaiian adventure) and had just located the book for which I was searching, when I turned around and saw Todd standing right next to me — looking as large & as radiant as ever, beaming me that beautiful smile of his.
To summarize what happened next (and to more quickly get to the point), Todd picked me up that day and took me south to hang out with him, eventually bringing me to one of his favorite places — Kealakekua Bay.
Now I am not the biggest fan of swimming in water where I cannot see the bottom (understatement), and yet Todd calmly assured me that all would be well, and we swam out together that morning into the Great Deep Blue.
It was truly an experience beyond phenomenal for me — not only because the water was so clear & the sky so warm, or because we could hear dolphins nearby when we put our heads underwater, but because Todd’s calm yet powerful presence that day allowed me to face and (at least temporarily) conquer one of my greatest fears. It was so Peace-full gliding through the water next to him out into the Bay, and that feeling remains one of the greatest gifts I have ever received.
Peace … S
“Farewell to you, my brother,
and the youth I have spent with you.
It was but yesterday that we met in a dream,
when you sung to me in my aloneness,
and I, of your longings, built a tower in the sky.
And yet now our sleep has fled and our dream has ended.
It is no longer dawn. Our half-waking has turned
into a fuller day, and now we must part …
And so, in the twilight of memory when we will meet once more,
we shall speak again together, and walk again hand in hand,
And you shall sing to me a deeper song.
And if our hands may one day meet again in another dream,
we shall build yet another tower together in the sky.”
(inspired by Rumi)
;