I’m not sure if I’m capable of blogging on the beach… Because I am being inundated by excruciating beauty from all sides. But I’m gonna give it my all. My wizard friend, Jack took me to one of his favorite places on the south side of the island today, Maha`u`lepu. I was skeptical, because the south shore is known for being more of a spoiled tourist mecca. But come on, what did I have to lose? Plus, Jack’s enthusiasm alone was worth our pilgrim’s slog. Turns out, the magic here is thick enough to spread on toast!!! I just tried to take a couple of pictures for you… but I don’t think they do much justice to the transcendent exquisiteness that I am marinating in right now.
Even just the fresh sea air alone is worth writing an entire opera about. It’s a steady, determined breeze that forces its soft, salty, satin way into my lungs and under my fluttering clothes. I’m sitting on a mat in the sand, shaded by these native Australian trees. Jack says the aborigines called them “talking trees”, because of the self assured tongues they speak in when the wind plays in them. They’re tall, slender, scraggly evergreens. But of course I’m saving the best for last. The water! It is like an immense, undulating patchwork colored jewel. (Jack called it “sea bling” as diamond light shimmies about the surface.) Towards the shore, it is pale, lucid aquamarine. So pale, you can see to the sandy floor. As it sprawls out, the aqua becomes emeralds, turquoise and jade. Beyond that, it dances into a classical oceanic indigo. Oh, and let’s not leave out the creamy, white froth that spontaneously leaps into existence like feisty punctuation.
This wet, swelling bejeweled body has stolen my heart. And I say, Mama, it’s YOURS, take it!!! Her tides have lured my heart into a state of fevered devotion. I want to be by her side forever. If I am too dense and human to remember the All Pervading Ocean, at least I can remember this vast though finite earthbound version of the Infinite with which my heart thirsts to be merged once more. (And yes, I know that once merged, always merged. I know that I have never left the Ocean, and neither have You, Blessed Friend… But it’s this silly game of duality. Bites us on the butt every time!) A seal just swam up to the beach for a little resy-poo. Auspiciousness! I love watching her blubber jiggle as she shimmies along the golden sand.
Now that I’ve set the scene, I want to tell you about Jack. We met a month ago tomorrow. He was my forth poem customer on the island. I told you before that sometimes I have an immediate knowing that certain people are going to approach me for a poem. I recognized Jack the moment my eyes fell on him. Actually, I mistook him for my dear friend, Phoenix (who originally brought me “Home” to Kauai seven years ago)… from the back. I thought, “Phee would have told me if he was coming to Kauai, wouldn’t he?” But then I saw Jack’s pale, lucid blue eyes, which happen to be portals into an etheric, mystical dimension of which I am still not entirely acquainted… But I do know it’s a heavily enchanted land of wizards and other such wonders.
“Welcome home,” he told me a month ago… and something in me knew without a doubt that he *really* was welcoming me home. He’s singing a song right now. He is often singing a song. He lives in a tent on an orchard in Moloa`a and spends his time slurping the copious island beauty through a straw and spitting it back out into sketches, paintings, poems, songs and a general [aloha] spirit of reverent, wizardish merriment. He adores me. When we’re together, I feel like a queen… but not the stuffy Queen of England variety. NO! The queen of enchanted nooks and crannies. The queen of the inner space formerly know as “outer space”. He is ever zealous to share everything wonderful and overflowing with me. He’s enthusiastic like an unspoiled, awe-struck child, yet wise like a man who has lived a long, full life in a School of Knocks of Diversified Intensities. I am very discerning about the company I keep… and Jack is top notch.
But if I was all caught up in appearances, bound by rigid expectations about the form in which my true friends would appear, I would certainly have missed him altogether. I mean golly, he’s a short, balding fifty four year old man with a mutton choppy beard and a vibrant slew of button down Hawaiian shirts. I’m glad my head is not SO far up my ass that I would miss him… and all of the other Beloveds whom God has delivered in such a clever diversity of packages. Though I must say, I have a proclivity toward older men. The quality, heart-FULL ones make stellar company. Maybe because I’m not all preoccupied with having sex with them… I suppose they probably are of me… but they’re well behaved and seasoned enough to appreciate me in my fullness and they blossom in my vivacious company.
Jack told me today, “I wrote in my journal the other night that you have the sexiest mind of anyone I’ve ever met.” I had to laugh, because Dan, another one of my all time favorite Beloveds (a sixty two year old piece of Holy Artistry) used to tell me the same thing often… Sexy mind… Okay, I’ll try that on! It’s one thing to be incessantly tangled in this “sexy” mind of mine… and entirely another to see it all neat and tidy from the outside. Next time I’m running myself in mental dervish circles, I’ll have to remember that it’s actually sharp and SEXY, in addition to being chaotic, crazy and SO beyond unruly!
My tantric philosophy teacher, Douglas Brooks loves to remind his students, “You are the company you keep, so KEEP GOOD COMPANY!” When I’m with Jack, I am fully alive, passionate, unlimited, inspired, grateful, regal, appreciative, magical, generous, compassionate, useful and wide awake! I like me this way.
I guess I’ll keep him…
Amen.
PS~ It worked out okay… blogging in wind whipped paradise. God? Slip me some skin, All Pervading Pal!