Kaua‘i, Deeply Healthy

By Virginia Beck

Kaua‘i’s Schiedea lychnoides. Photo by Ken Wood/NTBG

Something magical happens on arrival at Lihu‘e Airport. The sweet gentle air of Kaua‘i enfolds you in a fragrant hug that lets you know you are truly here. The soft air, the relaxed fit of island clothes and beach slippers tell you it is time to just stop.

Kaua‘i is a place where time and rest can heal nearly everything. Local time is always now, or maybe, “bumbai,” which basically means, “not now.” Kaua‘i is a place of refuge and relief.

A time of relaxation, freedom from the tyranny of the clock, and escape from an ever more schedule-driven world. While some may fill their vacations with many activities, the truly happy will relax, have their favorite beverage and a sandwich, and let the day unwind until sunset.

Kids have the entire beach to absorb their unrelenting energy. Happy shrieks of kids playing in the shorebreak are the sounds of children playing forever, generation after generation. Family tensions evaporate on the wind, and arguments trail off as the surf and barbecue become more interesting that petty squabbles.

Our island home is a special place, a healing place, where we value family and friends as our true wealth. We treat the land and its waters with respect, for it is our tiny lifeboat here on the immense Pacific Ocean. This island is one of the few places on the Earth where volcanic core of the planet’s beating heart has broken through the surface, driving energy-rich lava up to form our island chain.

Molten lava, frozen in place over the millennia, is relatively new, raw elemental earth, full of vibrant primal energy, our planet’s core. Our rock is old, but pulsating with energy, so faint, you would not notice it. Unless you listened really hard on a moonlit night.

Once exposed to Kaua‘i’s powerful environment, people are never the same. Tiny changes creep in. Maybe that first Mai Tai. Or a surfing lesson. A massage beside a waterfall. Why not try yoga? Or your first tattoo. The Zipline tour?

Later, you recognize the turning points in your life. Graduation, the job, the boyfriend, the internship at the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Or maybe the friend who asked you to housesit. It is only after it has happened that you realize the heartbreak has healed, that somehow, during your time on Kaua‘i, your life has changed just a little bit for the better.

Virginia Beck

Our island beauty overwhelms your senses, and it isn’t just the beautiful people. Truly, it is a paradise, a place apart where you can see your life in a different light. Measure your dreams against a coco palm or give a loss to the unending tears of a distant waterfall, but life will carry you on.

As you sink into the beauty of the landscape, the tropical flowers, your natural senses, so numbed by media and stress, come back to life. These are the everyday miracles — luscious mangoes falling from heavy laden trees, folks gathering plumeria in the parks for graduation lei. Surf crashing, birds chattering, gentle clattering of palms. This is healing. The heart of healing. Simple awareness of your own life and breath, and gratitude for your loved ones.

While the rest of the world rushes on without you, just settle back and listen to nothing but the sounds of your breath mingling with the day. Later you will step differently into the rest of your life, with aloha for all.

• 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.