I have been a Pacific Northwesterner for about 20 years.  In that time I could easily have passed as a vampire…and when the sunbreaks would come out for a moment I would run out to them as if they were the only Vitamin D for another month (or more.)  Sun became this fable.  This dream.  This wait…wait….wait….oh, no, rain again.

So I’ve been on Maui for 3 weeks now.  I’m here almost longer than my longest vacation.  This week I was driving back from my hair appointment holding a Maui made kombucha  you can fill from a tap with your own Mason jar….having just opened my Hawaiian bank account that morning…and the windows were down and the sun was (of course) shining…and I had my first of many I hope moments where I said out loud to no one in specific…I live on Maui.

Now all this is to say that I am new here…but the lessons are flooding in as much as the sun is shining…and I find myself staying out of it.  The sun I mean.  I always have a hat around.  I stick to the shade.  I’ve only actually been to the beach once…and I went later in the day when the sun wasn’t as hot.  I have my walking group and we meet at 6:30am so we aren’t pummeled by the sun….and yet I just caught a look at myself in the mirror and I have the most delicious tan.

I mean delicious.

In the back of my mind this whole time was “what’s the rush?”  It’s not like the sun isn’t going to shine on Maui.  So it’s better to be safe with the sun and not act like I was not trying to get tan, because I’m not on vacation and leaving to go back to Seattle where I would glow for a week before it all peeled off to show my pasty white underneath real skin.

How is this like life?  Well…I must admit this is all coming together right this moment…but I was struck at how easy it was to get to this tan state…I love being tan.  Love it!  I feel healthier and happier and more alive.

I am here.  And so there is no hurry.  There is no rush.  And I wasn’t staying out of the sun to NOT get tanned.  I just didn’t think I needed to go full boar and get burned and peel a dozen times…

So that is how it’s like life.

There is a middle path.  There is a long term goal that suggests a direction….and then you don’t really sweat the small stuff…just keep heading in the direction you are wanting to go.

Am I making any sense here?  Can you catch my drift?  There is a point when the manifesting itself disappears….and the trust kicks in (in this example the trust is that there will be sun tomorrow on Maui.)  It’s life’s little sweet spot.  And I’m here to tell you…it’s a lot like living in a place where the sun shines and you don’t have to worry about having a tan.

I think you are shaking your head and thinking i’ve been taking in too much sun…but I think if you sit with this for a moment…feel yourself floating on the gorgeous waters of Maui…feel the sand…feel the way the shade feels…the palm fronds moving above you, the banana leaves making their bamboo-like sounds…and I’m pretty sure you will agree that Life, in addition to being a like a box of chocolates…is a lot like not having to force a tan.

Admittedly, this thought is a work in progress….but I do have a delicious color right now!  And I don’t ever want to go back to pasty white again!