Congratulations to everyone reading this for making it to December! I am wishing you all happy holidays and a wonderful Solstice. It certainly has been a challenge to maintain serenity during these chaotic months ..so many things to accept that we cannot change! I trust you found the courage to change something you wished to change and that was within your power to change.
Throughout the year, I have looked continually to nature for solace, to nature as my drug. I had the wonderful experience of making eye contact with an elusive albatross (called moli in the Hawaiian language) during a recent trip to the Hawaiian island of Kauai! What made this so amazing was the fact that I had just finished reading a wonderful book called "Eye of the Albatross" by Carl Safina. I like to read books about places where I'm traveling. I never thought in a million years I'd see an actual albatross as they spend 95% of their lives in continual flight out to sea and nest on remote island cliffs. Only a few hours after I finished reading the book, my husband, son and myself decided to take a walk at night along a golf course path near the place we were staying near the town of Princeville. I noticed a black and white bird sitting about a yard from the path and said, "Wow, that looks just like an albatross, but it can't be!" My family was cringing because they were sick of hearing me talk obsessively about these birds while reading the book, as amazing as they are! They were so happy when I finally finished it, hoping I'd move onto other topics! We did some searching online and discovered that it was indeed an albatross as several pairs had begun nesting on the course a few years ago and now return annually, something not mentioned in the book. The golf course is next to a cliff facing the ocean from which the birds can fledge when ready. Once they fledge, they lock their large wings and fly off for three years, never touching land, only swooping down to catch squid on the surface of the water and flying incredible distances, as far away as Alaska and the Bering Sea! One of the lessons here is to be careful of what you are reading as the book may come alive before your eyes, ha ha! I have had other similar experiences of watching a youtube video and then later seeing something obscure and unlikely from the video appear on my path!
Albatross can also be seen through binoculars in their nests on the cliffs of the wildlife sanctuary at the Kilauea Point Lighthouse on Kauai.
I'll conclude this post series with the following lovely poetic quote from the book:
"We are all adrift in a dream, in our souls all ancient nomads wandering a great sea, hoping to navigate to some safe harbor, some protected shoreline halfway between eternities, wishing to come at last to a good place, a haven from the troubled world, to rest our burden softly, to bring time to a halt and pass into a deep, secure repose, to feel, "You belong right here, you have done well, and for a while, you can rest."
Wishing you blessings on your journey, deep rest, peace, and all the best in 2024,
Stay wild, stay free.
~Marianne ...aka Wild Honey
P.S. THANK YOU for reading these posts! I welcome any ideas and suggestions for future posts. Since I will have a book coming out next year ("In the Grip of Grace" from Finishing Line Press), I'm sure I'll be sharing a lot about that!