A Brand New World

By Virginia Beck

Marie Françoise enjoying some wine at sunset at Kalalau Beach in the summer of 2020. Photo by Léo Azambuja

Today, we wake up to a brand new world. It is the greatest show on Earth, your life.

You never know what you will discover. People who are surprisingly happy and willing to help you and laugh with you. Someone who lifts your spirits.

Something entirely new in your own neighborhood. An unexpected gift. Love notes from God, I call them. Reminders that every instant is a new flip of the coin.

Kaua‘i is entirely new every day. Sunrises, spectacular ocean storms, sunshine, rainbows and amazing flowers.

The pandemic proves how poorly anyone can predict what comes next. The reality that we can control the future. It is always unknown. “Normal” is not real, it is just a label.

We expect it awaits us when we open our eyes. Stepping out of bed and gravity works. Water runs, showers work. Friends or family are there to greet us. If not, we can reach out to them through the miracle of the Internet.

Did ever turn out exactly the way we imagined? Maybe smiles from loved ones, homework assignments from teachers, more work from your boss. Occasionally, surprises of gratitude, praise and teamwork from friends and ‘ohana.

An old Chinese story describes events that arise. People comment whether this is good or bad. The hero discovers that supposedly bad luck can bring good luck. Or what was seemingly good luck brought bad luck.

What happens to us is neither good nor bad; it is just that thinking makes them so.

What is remarkable about us as humans is that we have the capacity to be generous, a super power, and yet some choose not to use it.

Unexpected resources become available when expected systems break down. Some of us will see new possibilities: inventing new systems that perform better; finding ways to turn trash into treasure; and making helpful suggestions to our leaders in to improve things for the entire community.

As an elder whose expiration date is 50 years in the future, I rejoice in every single day. Complete with all this stupid little chores and vague irritations of living in a human body. Not to mention the other 7.8 billion people who attempt to live peacefully with each other.

Even with all the disturbing media, the violence portrayed on screens does not match up with the reality that every single day hundreds of miracles go unreported. No, thousands, maybe millions. Maybe those miracles of human behavior of our being good to people is because we are good — not because they are good people; maybe this all comes from our true reality as decent loving human beings.

Virginia Beck

This truly is the greatest show on Earth, full of spectacles, bizarre behavior and magic far beyond that which Cirque de Soleil presents to us. Each of us wakes up to a different universe, and we are at the center of everything we see. In fact, you could say we are at the center of all the universes as far as we know.

The real question is, what will you do to contribute to the great future speeding toward us? The screens do not report all the miracles. Every nanosecond, we have a choice to create the loving person we are and to share that as far as we can. As long as we can, as far as we can reach, to give back our incredible good fortune being alive. Right now.

Have the best year ever, and make today a great day with Aloha.

• Virginia Beck, NP and Certified Trager® Practitioner, offers Wellness Consultation, Trager Psychophysical Integration and teaches Malama Birth Training classes. She can be reached at 635-5618.