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"The seasons in Hawaii can be so subtle that you can miss them. Hawaii calls upon your observation skills and your intuitive biorythmns, to say, my god, something feels different and I am seeing a bird I didn't see last week, or the water temperature is cooler." Maile Meyer
"When you notice the golden shower tree going off, brilliant yellow, in places you didn't notice them before, suddenly it stands out. There are all kinds of fun things and they are all related." Sam Gon III
"The textbooks have four seasons, and the teachers teach the four seasons. I had one teacher tell me they have to learn about it. I said, 'Why do they? They don't experience it.'"
"I also realized that the seasons in the place you grow up become a part of your memories and your identity. To deny your children the reality of their experience, and to teach them about someone else's experience, makes no sense." Stephanie Feeney, Author of: Sun and Rain, a book for children and their friends about Hawaii's seasons.
Stephanie is right. Your childhood place, it's sights, smells and changes, remains imprinted on your identity all of your life.
For a long-time east coast "transplant" in Hawaii like me this creates a dynamic tension that feeds my imagination and fuels my pleasure of daily life. Watching a movie that's set in New York City winter, with the shades drawn and the air conditioner blasting, makes me believe that snow covered streets and icy winds are just outside.
Imagine how amazing it feels, over and over again, to go outside and see the deepest blue sky, whitest clouds, brilliant sunshine, waving palms, and to feel and smell the trade winds tumbling by like a parade of happy acrobats. To feel the subtropical sun on my skin and to realize . . .
. . . that I am home for good.
A L O H A! Cloudia
