Ok, so now I'm in Hawaii. (ha-vai-ee) I'm here with the toes of my right foot in a pot of boiling water to attempt to dissolve the vauna (sea urchin) I picked up while surfing Diamond Head a couple of days ago.
I would say that I live here now, that, this is where I am and so this is where I live, but I'm not so sure one can just declare that they live somewhere after only being there for a few days. I mean, what does it mean to live somewhere?
Does it simply mean to exist in a place--to wake up, take some food, stretch, go for a walk, breathe, and repeat? Does it mean to work, to
toil away at some task for hours upon hours, getting ones hands dirty, breaking ones back? Or does it take time--do I have to be here a certain amount of time before I can declare that I--Brian Herron--live here on Oahu?
I think maybe it depends on a combination of things, most importantly of these, though, is perhaps one's mindset. If one exists in the now, in the moment, then where they are is where they live, where they exist. This is a nice thought, for it allows us to believe that the places we love most can be home--on bike, in a pool, surfing, sailing, fishing, baking...whatever the act, or spot, if we have that open mind, that sharp "now" mind, then what we are doing, or where we are is where we live.
Still, there are rules, certain experiences that must take place before one can feel at home in any place, or instead, before any place will receive one as their home. For now, I will only say that I exist here, but maybe I do not live here, that, I am in some strange place between homes, between lives, still clinging to the one in the past--my life in Wilmington--yet, excited about the one in the future, or rather, the one in the now. In Hawaii.
Aloha nui loa
