Maui '15 - Double or Nothing

Third day highlight (only one of many) [October 28, 2015], “Double or Nothing”

We were tentative at first since only hours earlier at high tide the surf had been angry and aggressive, the sea roiling and restless. Nevertheless, we put aside the vestiges of caution and waded into the ocean that stretched out in front of us to the other islands as a color chart for the color blue.  We floated, we swam, and and with the calming sea enveloping us, we marveled at how wonderful it would be to eschew a pool membership in lieu of padding down to the ocean in the morning for a swim, a mile up and back in crystal clear water with coral formations supporting aquatic life in staggering hues, shapes and sizes. That would be a way to wake up in the morning. On our first swim a small sea turtle (honu) had swam by close enough for either of us to reach out and pat her on the shell. We kept an eye out for her or friends of hers but didn’t see another for the rest of the trip.

Up to this point, our third and final full day, we’d missed something, a favorite island scene had yet to unfold for us. It began soon enough though during our swim and so faintly at first as to make us wonder if the bow was of an imagination born of our desire to see one. The colors arose from the waters at the west end of Molokaʻi. The rainbow (anuenue), God’s promise to us, formed a short but intensifying arc up to the cloud base crowning the island. Floating on our backs, buoyant in the saltwater, we watched in wonder and glee as the bow of colors arched its way to faintly touch down at the northern end of Lānaʻi, brightening right to left to a fully formed and spectacular anuenue.

Elation caught up to us as a gentle rain fell on us from the clouds behind that caressed the hilltops of Maui. A faint but unmistakable second rainbow appeared above the first. With the cobalt ocean holding two catamarans at anchor the dual arches of glorious color provided a heavenly frame. The lower and brighter anuenue ranged from purple to yellow, the upper and fainter of the two from blue to yellow/green and back to blue again.

In lieu of a rainbow - love

The two islands, Molokaʻi to our right and north, Lānaʻi to our left and south, were connected in mystical communion that has played out over the millennia. It was ours to share and wonder about, to revel in and marvel (kupianaha) at God’s great mercies. Swimming, we had no camera and so have no photo, only the memory to fill in around an ideal day.

Keep the iron side up friends, when a rainbow is needed it will appear.