Islands are special. They are self contained, breezy, small enough to have a close knit community and large enough to have their own micro climates. It takes very little to step in, soak up and just be here. With no desire to be anywhere else, doing anything else and be with anyone else.

These islands are my cleansers. I lean on them to find balance. I come to them to slow down, and calibrate my circadian rhythm. I keep the watch aside, and let the time just roll. The position of the sun guides my activities. I need no alarm clocks on the islands.

It feels almost surreal to feel so connected to a place that is not your own, where you don’t belong. It makes me question the concept of “belonging” as it relates to a piece of land.

I didn’t grow up close to water or nature. I was an urban breed. Concrete jungles of Delhi is how I remember my childhood. The first time I saw the ocean, I was 17. Yet, at first glance, I developed a kinship with it.

It is so forgiving and yet so powerful. It is not calm, yet it gives a calming effect to those that come to it. It is a giant machinery that just works, day in and day out. It consumes the sun and lifts the moon. It is the world that we don’t see with our naked eye. Beneath its surface it hides several mysteries.

The ocean has three parts to it – the waves, the shore and the vast base. The ocean in that sense is similar to a human – with the body, emotions and principles being its three parts.

We are born with a body, we ride our emotions and we anchor against our principles and our values. And day in day out we balance the three and live.

We’d live a very unfulfilled life if we did not have emotions. Just like a placid ocean is no better than a still water lake. If we did not have principles and values, what would we run to when we need to make decisions? And what good would the emotion and principles be, if we did not have this life, this body.

Anyways, I am just letting the words roll and thoughts take shape. It is not everyday that one feels so overwhelmed, so superfluous and yet so much at peace.

We are wrapping up a break that was much needed, not planned, and an escape from a disastrous set of events that ruined our Euro travel plans. In hindsight, this is the vacation that I needed.

Hawaii, and in this case Maui, a place I call my own. I know which coffee place to go to and which açaí bowls are the best. The most enjoyable fresh ahi poke place and the best produce on the island to put together simple meals for my family. I know the roads, the highways, the stores, the food trucks 😉

While I was typing, Agam and Tara are getting ready for their final trip to the pool. The mind is at so much peace that I could tune out the activity and continue to let my thoughts ramble. This state of mind is quite hard to achieve when you are in the grind. But that is the state to desire.

On this trip Agam and I spent time talking about some of lessons from out thirties. Here’s a summary –

– Care less about what other think, about who you are, what you’ve got and where you are. Keep being a better version of you. Ignore the yardsticks. You are competing with yourself.

– Do good and keep good intent, that’s as far as you can take it.

– Prioritize your time with people that matter most. You will have to be rude. But know what matters. Simplify and succeed.

– Know what gets your blood rushing – an chase for some unknown, finding our ways to do things better, for me, financial independence for Agam, and swimming pools for Tara 😉

– Nobody gives a damn about you and your preferences! Learn to take yourself less seriously.

– As you grow old, you learn to stop giving a damn about more and more things. Keep at it. The smaller the list, the happier you are.

For now, I do give a damn about these islands and I am committed to them 😀

a hiki i ka manawa aʻe (until next time)