I took time off. I hope you can too.

Vacation, holiday, retreat, no matter what you call it, if you have the good fortune to be able to take time off from being productive, take it!

Wish for yourself what you would wish for any beloved. Take care of your humanity; it’s the best thing you can do for yourself and the rest of humanity. This is what I learned from an extraordinary week watching the tide roll in and out from Puako, on the West side of Hawaii Island.

My Sweetie and I had a hard time making the commitment to take time off. I hope you have the option, and an easier time saying “yes!” If it's of any help, here is what I hope to remember next time I’m torn between internal yearnings and external realities.

Invest in Yourself

There were so many reasons not to take time off, or to take time off in a way that would shorten the list of to-dos of everyday wifery and husbandry, in a way that would leave no evidence in records of household expenditures. House projects keep piling up and money is tight. I’ve been under-employed for thirteen years, and it looks like teaching at the University won’t be an option for the near future.

Could we afford to go on a trip? Couldn’t we just take some time off and work on all those “tolerances,” things that bother us around the house that we keep tolerating because they don’t feel important enough or urgent enough to fix? Is it even ethical to go on holiday when essential workers are putting their lives at risk for too many people unwilling to stay at home?

And yet, I knew that I really, really, really needed a reset.

There are ways to go on retreat wherever we are, whenever we are. I think of meditation as a mini-retreat, where all I have to do is enjoy the moment.

And… I’ve learned over the years, that the human body-being does best when it can remember what it’s like not to feel stress. We need sustained moments without stress to be healthy, to be able to know how much stress we are experiencing and therefore how distorted our perception of reality is likely to be, and to have access our full range of human capacity.

In the end, my Sweetie and I committed to not reading email, consuming news, or opening our computers for a week. We committed to do this away from home, where there would be no reminders of all the undone chores, where we might immerse ourselves in natural beauty with minimum effort, where we could choose our source of nourishment, feeding ourselves or eating out, before each meal.

I’m happy to report that we suffered no ill consequences from this change of routine either during our trip or after! The beauty of our temporary home really did fill us.

I feel so better now, and better able, perhaps, to know where best to invest my time and energy and attention, the most precious of my resources that I have to invest.

Go Straight to the Heart

This summer of COVID-19, my Sweetie and I wanted to be on Hawaii Island, but away from home, in a residential neighborhood not a resort, with sunshine, with easier the better access to the ocean, with the option to eat in or out.

Puako is a residential neighborhood between the Mauna Kea and the Mauna Lani resorts in South Kohala. Over the years, expensive second homes and vacation rentals have been replacing the simple cottages of the original Puako residents as they and their heirs get priced out of the neighborhood they built. Some of these newer larger houses may be a good fit for extended families. Our simple wish was to be on the water and have at least one bathroom, one bed that would fit the two of us, and a kitchen. Thankfully, we found a perfect match!

Our temporary home was an older house with a story, built by one of the original residents of Puako. Yes, it was falling apart in places and being rebuilt in places, and I didn’t dare touch the windows for fear that glass will come crashing down. We were there on a windy week, and brown dust covered the kitchen counters faster than you can say “clean.” But we could step off the lanai onto soft green glass, step over a low sea wall onto sand, and step into the ocean and snorkel all in the span of a few breaths.

We basked in sunshine during the day, and star and moon light during the night. It was all we needed. We actually had to turn off some of the many night lights throughout the property, as a motion sensitive night light in the kitchen and several electric candles in key locations were really all that we needed to get around the house after dark, wrapped in a warm glow.

Rick Steves, the American guru of travel in Europe, advises people to find lodging in the middle of the action that inspired them to travel. Even so, things don’t always work out. This time it did. I’m so glad I got to be exactly where I wanted to be while it still exists.

Riff on Routines

My Sweetie and I have an extensive morning routine. When we travel, most of it is optional, except for a substantial and leisurely breakfast. It’s what prepares us to wander far off our routine for the rest of the day, or create a new routine.

Wake up just before sunrise. If it's first quarter moon, the tide would be at its lowest at dawn at dusk. The occasional rock sticking out of the water at high tide would reveal itself to be the finger tips of a past pahoehoe flow reaching into the ocean. Find a spot far from the waterline to greet the sun as it rises over Maunakea. Stretch, meditate, and explore the coastline. Leap over braid-like trails left by early rising turtles. Nestle into a shady spot to watch the late rising turtles make new trails across the sand. Let your beloved bring you a cup of tea and Waimea strawberries, so you can stay there for minutes and hours, until the Sun is just too high in the sky, and it’s time for second breakfast.

Here is an eight minute video of a turtle’s morning routine:

Prepare for Sunshine

We went to Puako prepared to take walks, snorkel, boogie board, and read a book. I did all four! The one thing I would do differently is to be extra wary of the Sun. My Sweetie has been forbidden to take a picture of my crispy bottom from a late afternoon snorkel! Living in Hilo, I had completely forgotten what it means to be in full sub-tropical sunshine all day long. Next time, I would make sure to create shade for myself at all times with clothing, sunblock, or portable shade.

Be Fed

My Sweetie and I were ready to cook for ourselves during our vacation. In the end, we didn’t cook except for breakfast. We ended up wanting to spend as much time as possible gazing at sky and sea, and the idea of cooking with unfamiliar gear and washing dishes just didn’t appeal when we had other options. Here are mini reviews of where we ate.

Sushi Shiono: Good specialty rolls and Japanese comfort foods, open for lunch and dinner every day for take out and dine-in. I knew we wouldn’t have to worry about going hungry when I found out that this modestly priced restaurant (for Kohala) was open. Specialty rolls were half-price off at lunch for dine-in during the time we were vacationing, so we ate out for the first time since March and filled our bellies with sushi.

Waimea Wednesday Farmers Market: Food trucks! Fresh fruit and vegetables! Meat from D and D Farms! Akaka Falls Jams! I want to make Wednesday my West-side beach day so we can keep coming back.

Napua: Locally sourced ingredients prepared in a way/level that seems doable, but just not done at home. Lightly smoked pork loin on a big pile of toothsome local vegetables and crunchy ulu tostones really hit the spot. I would go here for a nice lunch, as the lanai was loud with voices traveling from other tables, and the view of the ocean is limited, and the sunset isn’t visible most of the year.

Canoe House: The food and location are superb with prices to match. Casual fine dining right by the water as day turns into night. Hits and misses with the serving staff. I would save on other meals to splurge here. Only two minor quibbles: the background music felt incongruent and unnecessary, and the grilled maitake mushrooms, which was my Sweetie’s favorite dish, would have been enhanced with a little extra crunch from a finishing salt.

Plan for Satisfaction and Surprise

I learned from my father that one of the tricks to enjoyable travel is to have a really short, simple, but meaningful to-do list. For example, during a several week stay in London, my father wanted to do only three things: see Karl Marx’s grave, visit Keat’s house, and eat at the Rules restaurant. On a trip to Italy, all he wanted was to spend a few days by Lake Como. This meant that he had a great success rate in accomplishing his goals, and every other adventure and discovery was an unexpected bonus treat.

On this trip I had only two to-dos, one that was super important, and one that I held to more casually: disconnecting from the stressors of ordinary life, and visiting the Galaxy Garden at the Paleku Gardens Peace Sanctuary. I had heard about the place many times, but had never been in the neighborhood when it was open. Since I didn’t want to interrupt our time in Puako, our visit to the gardens took place on our way home from Puako to Captain Cook, through Ocean View, Naalehu, and Volcano. This proved to be a wonderfully gentle re-entry into life back at home, through the varied climates on the island, and some of its most beautiful views.

The Paleku Gardens Peace Sanctuary itself is a verdant, quiet, and perplexing place scattered with shrines representing many cultures, faiths, and religions. Having visited, I recommend going there as a pilgrimage to a particular garden or shrine that connects you to your own source of deep peace, and delight in the serendipitous proximity of other wells of spirituality. Perhaps your well of spirituality may be driving and walking among profuse plants and flowers and fruits while overlooking the ocean.

I was glad that I went with my intent set on the Galaxy Garden. Noticing that it was this particular garden shrine that brought me to the Sanctuary, when it could have been so many others, made me emotional in ways I am still trying to make sense of. This, the Galaxy, is my holy place.

I hope you find yours.