Last year, we went to Hawaii. We chose the Big Island because we wanted to see everything – the beaches, the volcanoes, the touristy spots and the quieter areas where tourists don’t usually go. It was the most beautiful, magical, relaxing vacation I’ve ever had, and I can’t wait to go back.
My favorite part? Pahoa, where an erupting volcano and its lava flow were encroaching on the town. I loved standing at the top of Kilauea with my daughter and about five hundred other people, watching the orange-red glow of the center of the volcano. Breathtaking.
The best thing I brought home was a bar of soap from the Maku’u Farmers Market, and after I got home and settled back in to life on the mainland, I went online and ordered more. All my mom friends got a bar of this, Filthy Mama, a mix of lavender flowers, oats, coconut oil and a bunch of other natural stuff. At first, it was the name that grabbed me, and the sassy illustration on the packaging. But the products smell divine and they make my skin softer.
Another good one to try: strawberry sweetheart smoochie lip balm. Good for kids (like mine) who don’t like the minty, stinky lip balms.
Month: May 2015
Sometimes I stop to think about it, and I’m not sure how it happened, how this life became mine. I suppose it was the result of some hard work, some choices (and some mistakes) that were made, and a series of unfortunate events that, after the dust settled, gave way to opportunity.
Whichever of those steps or missteps brought me here, thank you, thank you, thank you. Through all the shit and struggle, I am so happy to be this child’s mother, to write these stories, to be married to this man, to live in this beautiful place. And I don’t think I could lay claim to any of it if even a single moment had played out differently.
