Monday, February 28, 2011

More Notes from Hawaii

I spent 2 days on a Silent Retreat just before leaving on vacation - it made for a busy Monday unpacking, repacking and finalizing plans for the family while we were gone! Also Sunday night - I was glad that I didn't care about the Super Bowl, as I spent the 7 hours after arriving home cleaning and planning. I figured I had had my day of rest and then some.

On the Silent Retreat, the Lord impressed on me that I try to be a good wife and mother and homemaker and music director and relative and friend in my own strength - I need to work harder, I need to be better, I need to figure out a new plan - instead of asking for the Holy Spirit's help and listening for His answer. I hoped that Pete and I could spend a fair amount of time on our vacation discussing this and figuring out how to do it in our home.

That happened, and it was great. Pete spent 2 days sick in bed, but otherwise we had very relaxing days of reconnecting, focusing on the Lord and His love for our family and for us, praying and studying the Scripture.

We sang a duet at the Ilikai Protestant Church; it has met in a hotel on Waikiki Beach for 46 years, and people from all over North America worship together - some for a couple of months, like my parents, but 5-10 first-time visitors each Sunday as well. We have sung "My Father's Wonderful World" dozens of times with an accompaniment CD, but hoped that Ginny Tiu, the church pianist, could accompany us since she plays beautifully by ear. She listened to the CD on Saturday, but without hearing what we were singing, couldn't quite feel it, so we used the CD. Halfway through the CD, it started skipping. We decided to keep singing and hope it would get better. It didn't, but Ginny came to the keyboard, fumbled around to find the key, and started playing with us! Although it's a combination of two songs, she was able to follow us until the end. It was just another example of the Lord's providence in little things as well as big.

Some other things we enjoyed (besides our adventures below):
- swimming at the Hilton beach
- going on a submarine ride
- eating at the Top of Waikiki revolving restaurant
- an onion loaf and superb ribs at Tony Roma's
- playing cards and watching fireworks at Bev Young's 13th floor beachfront condo
- watching the sunrise from a lookout point near a lighthouse by Diamond Head crater - don't know if we've ever seen such pinks
- waving to the kids from Duke Kahanamoku's statue webcam

Thanks, Lord, for a wonderful time!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Three Hawaii Adventures

We're almost ready to head home (well, not ready, but our flight leaves tomorrow night), and we've had three adventures.

Nicole, age 22, from Shoreview (a suburb of Minneapolis) was helping her grandmother here in Waikiki and attending the Ilikai Protestant Church, where the folks go while they're here. She had snorkeled and body-boarded with Michelle & Britta, and was willing to show us how it's done - and loan us her body boards. She was due to leave Monday, so we decided to go on Wednesday, and possibly snorkel on Friday. The sky was overcast, but we hopped in the car and Dad Norling drove us across the island via the Pali Highway to Kailua Beach. We drove by the place where President Obama spent Christmas, and parked near a beach that not too many people know about.

The rain had begun by this time and it wasn't very warm, but we decided that would make the ocean water feel warmer. Pete pulled his wet suit on and I zipped it shut as he held his breath. We grabbed the body boards and headed down to the beach. The ocean did feel warmer than it otherwise would have, and we slid in with no major problems. We chatted while waiting for good waves; there weren't a lot of them. But when we did get some, we were able to ride them well; it's a lot easier than surfing.

Only three other people braved the weather - young Hawaiian men. We felt triumphant, tough, and very Minnesotan. No one else dared go out on such a day! That was our first adventure.

This last Thursday, we again drove around the island, this time on H-3 - what gorgeous folded-mountain scenery! - and one of our stops was at Waimea Valley. This was a state park the last time Pete & I were here in 1988, but now is a private venture. The various palms, flowers, shrubs and bushes grew lush and large on the way up to Waimea Falls. In '88, they had a cliff-diving show off the Falls, where bronzed godlike creatures leaped into the 30' pool. Now, however, no jumping or diving is allowed, but regular folks can swim in the pool and under the Falls.

Michelle & Britta had swum under the falls, so of course we had to perform the same feat. The sun was shining brightly and warmly, so the water felt even colder than it actually was. We gingerly tiptoed in to our waists, then sank in to our necks - brrrr! I took off swimming as fast as I could toward the Falls, which warmed me a little. I couldn't head straight in, because the current pushes back, but the lifeguard haed given us the tip to use the rocks on the right side to help ourselves along. Pete went right under, and I gradually inched my way to his side.

Standing or sitting behind the falls isn't an option - there isn't any room - so we sat under them, with I-don't-know-how-many gallons of water pouring on our heads per minute. At first I thought I would suffocate, but as long as I kept my head down I could breathe just as I do in the shower, except a little more nerve-wracking. After sitting there a few seconds, I felt a pocket of air behind me and leaned back into it. It made breathing easier, but the water was still gushing over my head so I couldn't open my eyes. The fun was in the thought that we did it, so we got out right away, swam around a while, and picked our way out through the slippery rocks. That was our second adventure.

Our third adventure is described below, in "A Climb of Faith." We've also had wonderful times of relaxing, connecting, eating, walking, shopping, praying, reading and sight-seeing. God has been good to us these two weeks!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

A Climb of Faith

Yesterday we got going early to try to see the sunrise from the lookout point near Diamond Head. We arrived a little late, but there were too many clouds anyway, so we didn't miss anything. We sat in the car quietly, gazing at the undulating water, vast sky and piling clouds, when a guy next to us said, "There's a blowspout!" I got out of the car and we watched as whales - who knows how many were out there - jumped out of the sea, and blew into the air. They were pretty far away, but still exciting, especially as we had decided to forego the whale-watching excursion in favor of the submarine ride. God's creation is filled with wonders!

After the whales were gone, we drove to Hanauma Bay, which is where the best snorkeling on Oahu takes place. Pete brought his wet suit and our fins, snorkels and goggles all the way from Minnesota, so we were determined to snorkel before we left, but it seemed pretty breezy and cool - it's been cloudy almost the whole time we've been here - and we decided to wait and see if it got nicer later.

Right across the highway from Hanuma is Koko Head, a hill/mountain (very green, probably about 1200 feet high) with what looked like a path going up. As soon as we stopped at the scenic point across from it and Pete got out to take a look, I knew we were going to be climbing this thing. Sigh. We went down into the suburb to get a Starbucks, and ate our granola bar breakfast in a park nearby, then had quiet time. We've been spending good amounts of time with the Lord during this vacation, so I was in tune enough with the Spirit to pray and write in my journal, "Lord, please give me strength and stamina, because it means a lot to Pete if I go along on these adventures." I asked a gal who was obviously dressed for exercise if she climbed the mountain often, and she said she did it in 25-30 minutes, but if we allowed an hour and took plenty of breaks, it would be fine - "and it's so worth it!!" We put on sunscreen, picked up our water bottle, and started hiking.

The trail up Koko Head is an old railroad track - some of the rail is still there, but you climb on the ties. At the halfway point is a bridge where there's no earth under the ties, but it's not as scary as it sounds because there are still the crossbars or whatever they are. It doesn't look like it would be easy to fall through, and you'd probably live even if you did...

The farther we got up, the more beautiful the view. Before the halfway point we could see all of Hanauma Bay, which is a postcard picture. I had to stop several times, while Pete would have enjoyed trying to set a record of some sort. There was a steady stream of people going up and down - I saw at least one other couple where I could tell the lean, athletic husband had also talked his slightly pudgy wife into this climb.

When we arrived at the top, the scene took my breath away. Not only could we see all of Hanauma Bay, but also Waikiki, far in the distance, and around the corner, the east coast of Oahu. It was gorgeous and we spent almost an hour gazing, meditating, and taking pictures. The takeaway for me is: Often when all we can see is the hard work required, the destination is "beyond what we could ask or imagine." Go for it!


Saturday, February 12, 2011

More on the Musical

Well, here we are on vacation, resting, relaxing and rejuvenating after a crazy January. Because the dates of the musical were changed, we will arrive home 3 days before Opening Night; therefore, all the music had to be ready - well, ready enough - before we left. I had a rehearsal with the whole group each week, and got together, on average, with 4 people or small groups for individual rehearsals each week in January. Plus figuring out all the choreography and writing one new song.

I thought everything went amazingly well, and I especially saw God's hand at work in the last week, when I was also trying to plan our school schedule, transportation schedule, meal schedule, etc., etc. for the kids when we were gone. There was still quite a bit to do with the music, and I hate to make phone calls to line up extra practices - you never know if you're calling at a bad time, and often I had to coordinate with 3 or 4 people whose schedules were crazy and never fit together - so I was almost ready to just drop some practices that I felt were needed. But....

1. Mike & Kathy L., who are teaching how to swing dance for the last big production number, showed up on Wed. night to help anyone who still needed it. And all four couples who I felt still needed help were also there. I don't think those eight people had all been there at the same time the whole of January!

2. I hadn't had a chance to work with the drummer, Ryan, because of illness and other unexpected circumstances. On Thurs. he came for the whole rehearsal and was able to play along with every song.

3. Russ, who has 2 parts to play and a solo line in a couple of songs, had to work during almost every rehearsal and we had only skimmed one of his solo lines in mid-January. Thursday's rehearsal went so long that he came out after work, and then was willing to stay afterwards and go through the solos until I felt good about it.

I know there were other little blessings from the Lord that I didn't write down and don't remember, but I thank You, God, for caring for us and working in and through us.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Baby Steps

I've worked the FLY Lady plan (see FlyLady.net if you want to organize your life) on and off for years, and her mantra of "baby steps" was validated last week. The furnace room in the basement was a mess. There were empty softener salt bags, extra mattresses, bags of wheat, and tubs of snowsuits, extra textbooks and Christmas decorations all over the floor - none where they belonged. The pathway back to the "Christmas room" was blocked, and it was generally depressing just to go in there. I knew I had to do something, but how long could I put it off? :)

FLY Lady says that we should take baby steps for any project because if we try to do the whole project, we may succeed, but we'll be so exhausted that we'll never set foot in that room again! Her recommendation is to set a timer for 5 or 15 minutes and do what you can in that amount of time, do the same the next day, and so on until it's finished. Last week I decided I would take Philip down there and we'd work for 15 minutes. When the timer beeped, I couldn't believe it - the room was transformed! Everything had been put away; the mattresses had been moved into a closet, and the pathway was clear! The mountainous job I thought I faced turned out to be a molehill after all.

What other tasks might I finish in no time - if I would just try?