Butter-fly away

Last weekend was a good weekend; it included the usual, friends, beach, and fun. This week has been a weird week. Tuesday in our morning meeting our manager Lisa told us to prepare ourselves because the week was supposed to be hot, with no wind, clouds or rain. The day ended up being super-hot with no wind or clouds. Around 10:30 I decided enough was enough and organized a rain dance. The organization of a rain dance is quite easy, It goes something like this “hey guys, let’s do a rain dance”. After dancing around and being blessed with two rain prayers from Bettina and Michael we went back to work. Ten minutes after our dance heavy clouds came with their friend the breeze and blessed us with hours of shade. Around 1:00 the rains set in. Not only did it rain, it poured, and it didn’t stop until Wednesday night. Everyone was so shocked that it was raining; the raider didn’t even pick up on the rain. It was seriously crazy, we were the only place out of the whole state of Hawaii (aka all the islands) where it was raining. Either we are seriously good at rain dancing, or I had a pretty good intuition rain was on the way. It was awesome, and since it was still pouring Wednesday, we didn’t have to work. Instead of work we got to do seed inventory and watch The Botany of Desire. It was nice I didn’t have to work because I woke up with a sore throat which turned into a full on cold (or something) so I ended up not working Thursday and today (the 22^nd). Getting sick seriously put a damper on my weekend though. Tonight is the full moon which means the full moon party and I am stuck inside my room. I am grateful for my health though, getting sick has helped me take some down time to nurture myself. It forced me to stop and rest, something I haven’t really done since I came to Maui. I have been reading, sleeping and actually laying out in the sun (most people wouldn’t assume this is normal “sick behavior” but it actually helps a lot). The past two days have also given me an opportunity to re align with my personal path. I have sat with myself in silence and heard the yearnings of my soul, which felt so nice. I find it so funny that it takes getting sick to really stop and take care of myself. It makes me think about all the people who don’t take enough time for themselves, and how much we could all benefit from doing so. Maybe getting sick is a way of forcing you to get rest when you don’t give it to yourself. I also have come to the conclusion that since my throat was the source of this “dis-ease” I have a block in my throat chakra. I realize I haven’t been fully speaking my truth, fully expressing myself and maybe being too accommodating to the point where it forces me to ignore the expression of my needs. This is something I know I have done all my life; I only recently realized this aspect about myself. I am now looking at how I can connect to my needs, fulfill them, but also be there for other people without compromising myself. I won’t lie and say it is easy; as a matter of fact it scares me. The funny part is I am not sure why I am scared of expressing my needs, and using my voice. When I finally seize the opportunity to do so I realize it isn’t scary at all. Maybe I have a deep seated belief that says “if you don’t accommodate others they will not like you”, which would make a lot of sense for me. I am grateful I am in a safe environment that encourages the expression of ones needs. Being here has opened my eyes to this habit and has helped me start to work through it. So I am actually pretty tired its only 10pm but sleep comes easy when your letting go of a cold! I hope all is well for everyone! Maybe you could even ask yourself if you give yourself enough time to rest, and what areas could you nurture yourself more? Are there times when you are too accommodating and push your needs aside? Growth is beautiful! Lori Grace, the owner of the farm says “we aren’t just growing plants, we are growing people”. Let’s celebrate our growth together, cheers!

Fun in the sun at 21!!

It’s a Bob Marley kind of morning (also known as a super great morning to listen to his beautiful music). The sun is shining, I have a nice warm cup of coffee and the sun is shining in my windows, “Is this love that I’m feelin?” I think it is! I am so happy, I am bubbling over with jubilation! There is no specific reason for this joy, except for the fact that I am alive, like really alive!!! Before I came to Maui I was in an extreme funk, living in a place I didn’t enjoy, working in a dark spa, really going nowhere, and doing nothing I enjoyed. It’s super sad to think about being so young and being between a rock and a hard place scared to go forward not know what to do. Leaving Orange County was the best thing I have ever done for myself. I was so caught up in the confusion of what to do I never took action towards living my life. Now that I have, everything is flowing, new doors are opening, and I am growing and changing so much and it’s the best feeling in the world. Even some of the harder things I have gone through are enjoyable. I would rather be growing than stay stagnant. Plus whenever I get down I think to myself “will this really matter in five years” and when the answer is “no” it blows over faster than I can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. So anyways my birthday was on Wednesday (13), I am officially 21 and 100% legal (I think I need a shirt that says that). I had an amazing birthday, the people I work with and my friends made it super great. Before I go into what happened on my b-day I’ll go back to last weekend when Bettina and I went snorkeling!

I still have to cover a few things from last month like the full moon party, this awesome meditation dance class and lots of beach time. To be honest I can’t remember all of it right now or I would write about it. All you need to know is I have been having so much fun, meeting so many amazing people, and loosing quite some sleep ;). There is another full moon party soon and it is on a Friday so I won’t have to work the day after with zero hours of sleep (which I did and totally rocked the farm doing it), I’ll be sure to write about that one though! Ok so last week Bettina and I decided to go to Lahaina to go snorkeling, which I was so down for because I have never been. Bettina Isis and I left around 2:00 to go to Lahaina, meet Ben there and walk around the town. Honestly Lahaina looks like Huntington Beach; it’s touristy and reminded me
of home. It’s a nice place if you want to be a tourist and forgo the real Hawaii experience, which some people like, but they are so missing out! The first thing I saw was the banyan tree which is In the middle of town, it is so amazing! At first glance it looks like a normal park with some scattered trees, but when you look closer you notice all the branches are connected making it one tree. It is so mind blowing to see one huge branch stretch from one tree to another. I have no clue how it works, its beautiful magic. We kept saying it was a Pandora tree, which I find myself saying about a lot of things on Maui. I honestly can’t describe how cool it is, you have to see it for yourself! After seeing the tree we walked around the shops and got a bite to eat at the cutest little oceanfront café. By the time we were done with lunch/dinner the sun was setting and Bettina and I decided to go find a camping spot. Honestly we got THE COOLEST, most beautiful camping spot ever! The free camping spots are literally sandwiched in between the ocean and highway. It literally takes ten seconds to walk to the ocean and ten to the highway. It is a little sucky because until about 11:00pm you hear cars passing nonstop, but after that you are left with the sound of waves crashing on the shore. By the time we got to the spot the sun was just about to go under the horizon, the moon was already up and the sky was painted with oranges pinks and purples. Naturally we jumped in the crystal clear water to have a nice sunset moon bath. The water was warm shallow and dead still. We were the only ones in the water, and we couldn’t see anyone around. It felt like God had giving us a sacred pool to rest in and witness the most beautiful scenery. Bettina started singing a beautiful ritual song and out of nowhere this huge beautiful white bird flew over us and then disappeared. The whole experience was blissful, I just kept picturing girls hundreds of years ago enjoying the same thing looking at the same moon and feeling the same magic we were. I could really feel how everything is connected, no time, no place, no me, no you just one. That sounds so cheesy but it’s the only way I can describe what was going on in my mind, or rather my heart. After our swim we climbed up this beautiful tree and just meditated there for a good 20 min. The evening was pure bliss. After out meditation Steve and Christian came to keep us company. Bettina and I flaked on being prepared for proper camping and forgot fire wood. The first thing Christian did was pull out his machete and started cutting off huge branches for a fire. I started joking about how convenient it would be if he had a saw too, and the next thing I see is him whip out a saw and saw down the branches for perfect fire wood (this guys is so crazy, he does the most unexpected things). We had no matches so Christian lit the fire with a rock and metal by making sparks. He is seriously a jungle man; I swear he could survive on his own in the wild no problem. It was so nice sitting around the fire singing and listening to music and eating yummy chocolate trail mix, I love camping. When we finally went to bed we decided not to set up with tent and just sleep on our blankets under the stars. It was a beautiful idea until around 3am the ocean decided to creep up on us and wash us out. The water made it all the way up to my knees, which was seriously the best way to be awoken from a deep sleep (NOT). After we moved back and dried off a little I slept like a baby till morning. When we woke up the boys wanted to go home and Bettina and I were still set on snorkeling, so they left and we headed off to get food and eventually snorkel. Snorkeling didn’t go as planned because it started to rain on us. It wasn’t even nice Hawaii rain, it was cold spitting rain. Lahaina is the dry side of the island, so it was Ironic that it started to rain on us (and not ironic “haha”, ironic “this sucks”). I took it as a sign that we weren’t supposed to snorkel there, maybe there was a shark and I would have one less arm right now, who knows. After waiting to see if the rain would stop, we ended up going all the way back to where we had camped and snorkeled there. It was still a nice spot, it didn’t have the most beautiful things to see, but for a beginner it was nice. The reef where we were was dead so it was all brown, but I saw some beautiful fish. I also scrapped my leg on some nice sharp coral. Apparently doing this is really bad because staff infection is extremely easy to get on the island and staff lives on coral, so you see why having coral cut you isn’t too great. My leg is totally fine but please snorkel with caution! After we snorkeled we went home and got ready for Isis’s going away party. The party was really nice; there was good food and good company! I already miss Isis, but she will be home in a month, so it’s all good.

For the sake of avoiding rambling over unimportant subjects, ill skip ahead to my birthday! The morning was beautiful and the sun was shining. When I got to the kitchen there were flowers and a candle on the kitchen table that Bettina had collected for me. It was so beautiful and sweet. At lunch my managers brought me vegan chocolate mousse cake and everyone come to the kitchen to sing and enjoy some food. It was really nice to have everyone around and acknowledge my birthday, it was special! Wednesdays are the grocery shopping day so we went into to town after work. Since it was my birthday we stayed in town and got some coffee and just hung around for a while. Later that night we went out for some drinks and I ended up not even being carded (buzz kill) but it was still fun. After we were finished we went back to the farm and had some fun island style in Bettina’s room till we were all practically asleep. It may not sound too exciting but I thoroughly enjoyed myself!Cheers to a new year, I cant imagine starting it in a more beautiful, magical place! Love to all <3

birthday flowers <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx1k6XL1U_JjIR8cgEdteZ_aw1eHkKPympwaf5fZfykFIbCYU5n7U-NpW2G3n566rnQ4yy-2lCnEIEHJJcWIPwmkvoFQQCgxPZn9F0C_pIcz7N3pKeZKUsrHTfxCwMCQFO6SuzDgU9zQch/s1600/P1000198.JPG">

Lahaina camp site random pic of my manager Lisa

Beautiful Bettina Birthday Beer....and Steve

these two pictures are the same sunset, everyone was pulling over (including us) to watch the beauty unfold <3>

This is the Banyan tree! I did not take these pictures, but I figured there should be a visual for when my description failed <3>

Love is surrender

Cheers! It’s been a while since I have written, and the only thing I can blame this on is sheer laziness. I would love to be more tasks oriented (that’s a lie) but whenever I have some down time I would way rather sit in my room doing absolutely nothing, or go to the beach! Its not like I am super busy (well I kind of am) but communal life can be seriously draining, so when I get to be alone I take it and run with it. I have been here for over a month and I love it. Time is flying by and I have no clue how to slow it down, so I am soaking up every moment and fully enjoying myself. I am going to be completely honest with you about my experience here, because it’s not all rose beds and butterflies. I didn’t expect it to be perfect either, I knew I would grow and things would change, I would change. Change and detachment are a few of the biggest things I have been faced with. Isis said it perfectly the other day “here you will learn about plants and how to detach from life.” She was really talking about the impermanence of things, people, and situations and learning how to let them go when they are ready to be let go of. I have had to let go of parts of myself and my personality that no longer serve me. I am also learning how to get in touch with my emotions and really see myself in a new light. Every experience I have had has taught me something about myself, and brought out parts of myself I have suppressed. Beyond all the drama of our everyday lives is a secret lesson we are supposed to learn to further the evolution of this life. If we can push through the “problem” and get to the heart of the situation so much growth can follow. In the end living in a community such as the one I am living in is seriously beautiful. We are all here to support and love one another. This is such a beautiful thing to watch and feel. Watching others open up and grow has helped me blossom too. Last Thursday was Isis’s last day on the farm. Now it’s just me Bettina, Gil, Michael and the new guy Peter. I have seriously become attached to Isis and she brings such an amazing dynamic to the group. I especially love that there were three girls, having three works really well. Letting go of people is just a fact when you come to this farm, so you both have to embrace it and let go or resist and suffer (which really goes for all things in life). When I came to Maui my intention was to embrace change, and that’s exactly what the island gave me an opportunity to do. I’m not complaining, but it’s definitely been a nice little challenge. As all things in life the universe, god, whatever, gives you opportunities to grow. Sometimes these growth opportunities aren’t as grand as others but in the end all growth is a positive move forward on our journey! Now I have three weeks of stuff I have done to write about, I will try my best to get that done sooner than later, but seeing as my 21st birthday is tomorrow….I might be a little occupied ;) . Peace and Aloha!