Sarah's CircleFriends are blessings that sustain our journeys. |
When we lived in Hawaii from 1973-1975 we rented a house on the north end of Oahu, right on the ocean. We had our own beach, and had 31 palm trees in our yard. My Pascual, a 5 foot elderly native Phillipino, came with the house. He would come around every other day to trim the trees and make sure none of the tall branches fell on little Britta. What was amazing is that he would shimmy up the tree barefoot, some of the trees being 10 or more feet tall, and pick the ripe coconuts, before they too fell to the ground. He taught us how to open the coconuts, and how to know when they were ripe. We had a community of Hare Krishnas that lived a block away, and often came to pick the green coconuts for their milk. However, we knew that the green milk would give us diarhea, and wondered how they could drink it. It was interesting to get to know them, because they were all young guys just out of the military. What I discovered is that they missed being part of a group of men, and the Hare Krishna group filled the void. They liked being different, dressing that way, and eating only vegetarian, but underneath they were just young boys searching for an identity. I loved the beauty of the palm trees, how they swayed with the strong Pacific winds. After the tsunami that attecked the island while we lived there, the only trees surviving were the palms. It must have been fun to wave whole palm branches for parades such as Jesus entry into Jerusalem. Truly a wonderful way to celebrate. --Cynthia
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January 2022
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