Plans change. By now we should have been well on our way up the thousands of steps ascending the "Stairway to Heaven", but one of our tour guides has a fever. Our trip will wait. For some reason, today isn't the day our plans changing. Just like as I arrived at McDonald's, my usual table for the past four days was occupied, changing my place in the venue. Yet some things remain. The same five men are gathered around their spot talking stories, again non-stop. It is, as many would say, 'cute' (don't let them hear that...or maybe at their age, they just wouldn't care).
While it appears a perfect day to ascend the razor edge climb, today is not the day. If I had placed all my heart and soul into the plans, disappointment would wash over me like a wave. But having learned lesson of expectation and disappointment, today will rise as a day not planned by me, unfolding by God. We may go snorkeling and I may go kite flying. Or, maybe a trip around the island, tourist style. Or both.
A life 'on vacation' for me is one devoid of over planning. General 'directions' exist, tasks and that which I'd like accomplish but not so much in cruise fashion, or tourist bus manner, just in generalities. And, should something be left undone, for me, here, there may always be another trip and Hawaii will probably always be here.
Our family is planning return in a little over six months, and after this trip, I am thinking my brother will have been given ammo to become his family's tour guide should they all join us. Having made more frequent journey here as adult, it seems as if unknowingly to both of us, dad was starting to hand over the keys to me. As an infant, I did live here for a while, mom severely homesick, dad sending her and I back to be with family. It was quite a financial and personal sacrifice for him as they could only afford a one way ticket, we not able to return until enough was saved for our return. Maybe that was all needed for me to feel planted as an islander. Maybe it is the numerous returns, just enough to keep me connected. There seems something here more than just wishful aloha.
Ohana here means family, and I do have family here. The older, my parents generation retired have time, the younger, those employed, mostly tied to their jobs punch the clock while we visit. But something has changed this trip. My cousin Brad is trying to get time off to take us paddle boarding this Friday, something not done by my brother or I. Comedic memories will probably ensue as we attempt this new activity as surely I plan on spending more time in the water than on the board. But it will be fun, mostly fun spending time with my cousin. Saturday the ohana will gather at their home for dinner. The cousins now in charge of the gatherings, the torch passing down a generation, we are now responsible as leaders in the tradition.
The most valuable of all gifts here is the gift of ohana. Not just on the islands, everywhere. The here I refer to is anywhere on the planet. Ohana here includes friends, those whose lives intertwine as life moves forward. Whether related by blood or not, elder family members are called uncle and auntie and are included in all manner of family gatherings. As Christians we might call these, disciples, those engaging with us in 'life together'. We believers could learn much from the ideas of family here as blood lines diminish in the eyes of devoted care and love. I have discovered many uncles and aunties who are not related by blood, but I thought they were.
Might this be the key to heavenly ohana? It strikes me here, that if we go back to the beginning, do we not all share the same blood of Adam and Eve? Are we not one humongous ohana? Maybe ohana here fully emulates heavenly ohana, lines blurring as our lives share in and out of one another's needs and blessings. My view of ohana broadens with each passing day. Surely the close blood relatives should have deeper connection, and mostly for us, they do. But our heritage of the larger sense of ohana brings thankful blessing into these footprints of faith.
Ohana here infects my understanding of ohana at home. I am thankful for my church ohana. I am thankful for my friend ohana. So many are part and parcel of my life and the life of our household ohana. Indeed, ohana here means family. And as I age, I find my ohana abundantly more far reaching than that of close blood. The ohana of God deep and rich, we sharing in the blessings, we gleaning the grace and love spreading it to one another. May we all remember ohana here.
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