Vacation Maui and Living on Maui are two very different hosts.

Vacation Maui shows you her blossoms and tropics and waters and decadence.  She blows the sweet scent of Jasmine in your face and tans your skin.  She offers you trinkets like coconuts with a straw in it so you can taste their water in a whole new way.

But picking up and Living on Maui, well…it’s like belonging on the back of the property in dirty dancing and whether or not you are “Baby” put in the corner is entirely up to you.

I have just passed my two month mark.  So I am by no means an expert, but I have some thoughts to share…..mainly about Aloha.

I was a Trader Joes shopper.  I saw the Mahalo wrapped in flowers on the exit door.  I got the kitsch and loved it!  I watched Fantasy Island as a kid and saw the vacationers greeted by half naked beautiful ladies offering Lei of plumeria while crooning Aloha at them.

And the funny thing about language, is that it doesn’t even scratch the surface.

And this is where the pit boss Maui comes in.

If you are invited to live on Maui, by Maui, as I was….then she has some very intense ideas for your code of conduct.  And she wastes NO time letting you know what you can carry, and what you WILL let go of.

I have blogged for years quite honestly about my fears and insecurities.  I have done the work to look at them and let them go.  I have moved on and changed my thinking.

And then came Aloha.

The mother of all challenges.

Let me back up.  I know we are told that Aloha means welcome.  And yes, that is true.  But that is the G rated version.  Like Namaste is just the thing you say back to the yoga teacher at the end of class.

And I can only go as far with Aloha as I have gotten in two months, but like a parasite (a good one?) it latches on and won’t let go, getting deeper and deeper with each new Ah-Ha.

Let’s all pause a moment and imagine that inside of us are little bubbles that hold fear, doubt, insecurity…you know, those low vibratory thoughts we all have…even those who seem like they don’t.

Aloha is the magnet that pulls that bubble right into the center of your consciousness and expands it and expands it and expands it until you can’t hide from it.  It’s literally everywhere.  In every person.  In every conversation.  In every mood.

But this is Hawai’i, not boot camp.  So it comes with the jasmine scent and the beautiful water and healing sand and warm sun, and tropical drinks.  It comes with other people also getting triggered to their core wounds  and going through similar hitches in their giddy-up.

And like a bucking horse…Maui gives you enough training to hold on if you take the reins, or she will kick you right off.

This is evidenced on Craigslist where everyday people are selling everything they own dirt cheap to get out of here.

This sweet little word, encased in flowers, is filled with nothing but self love…and all we do is step in the way of that.  Make it hard.  Look for distraction.  But unlike the mainland…we are surrounded by waters filled with sharks and other things that want to eat you, so you either sit down on the sand, or under a tree and open up to the little bubbles and crack your heart open and figure out what is stopping you from loving every single cell in your body….

Or you take the next jet plane outta here.

Maui is intense.  Because as we all probably know by now, love can hurt.

So this journeyer keeps journeying. Digging deeper into her Aloha because my mamma raised me right and I always give proper thanks to my hosts.  And since this one wants nothing but me take the next step towards finally mastering the work I’ve been doing for twenty years…how can a good Jewish Spiritualist Healer girl refuse?

And in the spirit of healing.  In the spirit of Namaste (the Masters level meaning) and in the spirit of love from it’s deepest source I offer you,

Aloha.