Change...Change Is Good.

Maui has changed me.

Today it was no more apparent than when I got off my shift at Whole Foods. I had two and a half hours to kill before Candace clocked out. Usually I would have rushed home to do some laundry and dishes, making sure everything was nice and tidy. But since home was a half hour away I decided to just stay in town. I grabbed my flip flops out of the back seat and rode down to Baldwin Beach Park.

I took off my shirt, sprayed on my sun screen and got down to the sand and just sat. I listened to the ocean. I listened to the random music floating through the air, drums and ukuleles and hand claps forming an odd rhythm with the tide. I watched the dogs roaming free up and down the beach, sniffing people and fetching sticks when their owners threw them. I watched the sun as it slowly set behind the clouds and the mountains, cooling the temperature by about fifteen degrees.

Certain people on Maui adopt a culture of "Ohana". That means "family" in Hawaiian, and when people get together at the same place day after day they become ohana. A young girl walking by called out to someone sitting near me. "Hey uncle!" she shouted. The man could have very well been this little girl's uncle, but I don't think so. Another woman passing by with her daughter stopped to give a greeting to another man near me. They greeted each other in a European fashion, kissing each cheek. After talking for a few minutes, the woman and her daughter made their way off of the beach. Watching all these people, I felt like an outsider of the highest degree. I don't know these people...yet. But as I stay here and co-exist with these people on this island I feel like I will get closer to becoming part of their family, their ohana.