I stare at the blank screen of my iPad. The blank screen which represents so many future journal writings and blogs. The countless stories representing so many people’s lives and experiences.  These blogs will capture some of those experiences.  More importantly, they are written with the hopes of whetting your appetite for your own travels, your own experiences.  Whether you dream of Paris in springtime, riding the night train to Katmandu, taking a slow boat to China, or attending the Mariachi Festival in Guadalajara, Mexico, all your dreams are possible.

We are living in Waikoloa. More specifically, Waikoloa Beach in the resort area. I say this to differentiate between Waikoloa Beach and Waikoloa Village. The latter is 1/3 of the way up the hill and runs an average 10 degrees cooler.  As I sit on our lanai, our patio, our back deck, our balcony, call it what you will, I relax to the sound of the wind in the palms. I have heard Waikoloa referred to as wai-ka-blow-ya.  They’re not joking. The wind gets whipping up pretty good here, but it’s on and off. Which makes it really cool. The wind will whip up and you can enjoy the sound and the power of the wind through the trees. Then it will die down and be calm and you can walk to the beach or the shops and hotels. Then when it whips up again you are at your destination or lying on the beach and it’s blowing over your head and it’s a big, “Who cares?”

Presently, I am sitting on the lanai of our condo and just over the sound of the wind blowing through the palms fronds I can hear music. Where it’s coming from, I don’t know. Leise and I are discussing it’s speculated origin. As I look up to the mountain to the east towards Waimea, covered in clouds, I am grateful we live down hear where it is warmer. I suggest to Leise that we go for a walk and explore the origin of the sound. Will it be from the 19th hole (the bar) of the golf course?  Will the music be coming from the resort?  What lies in store for us on this next little adventure?   I am excited to find out.

Aloha.

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

My wife and I retired me about 4 years ago to live my dreams of traveling the world and sharing our experiences with the world. I remember the day. We sat down and asked ourselves the most important questions we can ask ourselves: 1) What would you do if you could not fail?; 2) What would you do if you won the lottery (after you bought all the material possessions and still had tons of money to spend)? How would you give back to the world?  I never had a need to cure cancer. Besides, that already exists, it is just been suppressed by the pharmaceutical industry, because it doesn’t make them any money. So we sold or gave away everything and started our new life in Hawaii.

Where most people make their Top 10 List of Things You Want To See Before You Die, we made our top 22 list of places we choose to live.  We found that, although we wanted to see the world, every vacation was back to Hawaii. So we quickly realized if we didn’t move to Hawaii we would never see the rest of the world. Thus Hawaii is now home.

As I look out from our lanai over the quiet greens of the golf course past the palm trees and up to Kohala mountain, I listen to the birds and relax. I feel a sense of calm and peace. Congress is battling over the fiscal cliff and my nation’s economy is on the brink of another great recession. Of yeah, and the sky is falling. In my world, all is calm. All is bright.

I turned off the news about 12-15 years ago, because I noticed that it was all bad news about people I never have and probably never would meet. Wayne Dyer pointed this out in a PBS special I saw years ago. He asked what would have happened if someone I never met, in a country I will never go to, was killed by someone else I will never know?  In today’s society I hear about it on the news until I am so upset that I feel bad about my life or feel bad about their life or worse. All the while feeling emasculated and powerless to do anything to better the situation. None of these options benefit the world. If the same situation occurred 200 years ago I would maybe get a letter which took 3 months to travel across an ocean to get to me and then the news would be in its proper perspective. Old news. Thanks for the update. Next subject?!?!  I learned I can take responsibility for the information which comes into my world. I can also choose how to receive this information.

Years ago I came to the conclusion that, generally speaking, there are no emergencies requiring my immediate attention and that the U.S. culture had become a culture of demanding.  Demanding my time, my attention, my energy, my life, and more. The energy which surrounds this culture is like a petulant child always demanding more attention while trying to find its way in the world. The child does not know it is a bull in a china shop breaking and destroying everything in its path. The child if scolded doesn’t always respond positively. Sometimes the best form of teaching a lesson and getting someone’s attention is by ostracizing them. Ignore them. When the child sees it is not getting attention from demanding it, an intelligent child will try a different tactic.  Living outside of the mainland U.S. I have become more aware of this. Unplugging from the news was step 1. Step 2 was to disengage from the drama of the energy of the demanding petulant child. Step 3 is to choose when and where to engage the world. My world.

This year I plan to address many topics which have come into my life since I retired or topics which helped me choose to retire. My goal in sharing my journey is to engage, encourage, and inspire to live your life and follow your dreams.

From the lanai, of our fabulous home in the beautiful island of Hawai’i, I bid you welcome and aloha.

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com

Have I told you how much I don’t like cold?  Well, I really don’t like cold. I have been playing on my iPad for the last few hours up in Waimea.  The door has been wide open all day, because it was relatively nice earlier.  I usually have the door open all day so that ‘The Boo’ (our 16 year old Miniature Schnauzer) can go outside and relieve himself on his little grass patch outside.  Our little angel died last November and I still leave the door open so that I can still feel his presence here with us.  Somewhere over the last couple hours and weather took a turn for the worse. The temperature dropped by at least 20 degrees and we are quickly approaching subarctic temperatures, lol. My body feels as cold as my broken heart.

Okay, maybe the temperature didn’t drop that much, although it was close. And maybe we are not talking about subarctic temperatures.  The weather app I have on my iPad states the temperature is around 52 degrees, but the thermostat outside says 47. Until I pull my thermal underwear out of winter storage, 52 feels like subarctic.  I can here Ella Fitzgerald singing “Baby it’s cold outside.”

Less than a month ago the weather started becoming colder up here, but after that it warmed up again.  We were going to pull out our cold weather gear, but after it warmed up we changed our minds. I hope this is not whining too much, but when we are in Waimea during the winter, I miss my old fireplace in Flagstaff. Yes, in the mountains of Hawaii it does get cold enough to desire a fireplace. I can hear the crackling of the wood and smell the aroma of oak, juniper, aspen, etc. I can feel the warmth of the fire on my face as I think about placing another log on the fire in my mind. As I remember back to when we lived in the snow, I can see the wood pile outside in the snow offering more warmth if I am willing to brave the cold to retrieve the wood. When we build our winter cabin up here it will definitely have a large fireplace.

I love the snow and I don’t mind the cold if I am dressed properly for it. Leise and I were just talking about unpacking our winter clothes, but since we are moving down to the beach there is not the same need.  We are both so grateful for the move. We both enjoy seeing the whales breaching the water surface and then splashing down on their sides, from our patio lanai. The whales come down from Alaska and are the most active in Hawaii from January – March.  I can already feel my body floating in the warm water while I snorkel and listen to the whale song in the distance. It’s good to be home. The water will always feel like home to me!

For today, I bundle up. I turn the thermostat up a degree or two. My wife makes me some hot cocoa. I snuggle with my wife for warmth. She warms my body, my heart, and my soul. I think about how many babies were created because someone lived in a cold area and snuggled for warmth. I guess there are some good fringe benefits to the cold weather.

My wife and I have taken this week off to do our final grieving for the loss of our little angel… he was our son. We loved him so much and will miss him forever. As the weeks passed, I could finally look at pictures of him without breaking down, I was able to do a tribute video of him for our website.  With our last good bye we say… Rest in Peace little BabyBoo, we love you soooo much!

The Daddy of BabyBoo

James Christopher

ThruJimsEyes.com