Kai kai Kauai

Surfy shimmer late afternoon slant light
hath revealed glimmering
truth that midday overlooked,
as each wave topples in from aquamarine bliss
blasting gold and magic disappearish foam upon the beach.
Silvery rumpled water plane retreats back to sea
leaving sheen that descends into coarse brownsand,
mottled with micro rivulets crisscrossing intersecting
as multiple mini-sandstorms settle from their infinite mini-maelstroms
upon this shore,
racing, streaking wavelets o'er the smoothness of ancient speckled sands
where sandstonish texture takes over as crystalish water is disappearing
constantly and forever
and ever and amen
according to shapeshifting strand line as erratic as
a dowjones database
Jackie Paper will sail no more on this particular
day
but the sun sets down its golden splashes same as
it always has since
God only knows when.

Glass half-Full

Lessons learned in a land called Hanalei

1.) Any expedition undertaken by a group through unfamiliar territory will generally be longer and more difficult than is indicated by any map or plan.
2.) Each member's expectations are unique.
3.) Each member's response to adverse conditions is unique.
4.) The group's goal or destination may be clearly stated, but each member's evaluation of achieving that goal is unique.
5.) One particular member, i.e. Jackie Paper, may exhibit zeal for the goal and abundant energy to achieve its accomplishment.
6.) Another member, i.e. Puff, may carry less motivation for reaching the group's goal or destination, and thereby allow him/herself to be delayed by adverse conditions.
7.) Jackie Paper's exuberant surge forward and Puff's dragging of feet will probably result in a distance between them.
8.) Other group members may be suspended between those two in indecision about achieving group goals or tending to individual needs.
9.) If cell phone service is not available, the dilemma presented to compassionate members by lesson #8 could reach critical proportions.
10.) The group's success in reaching the stated goal or destination may be in peril.
11.) Jackie Paper may surge ahead anyway.
12.) Puff may cease making any forward progress, possibly abandoning his/her contribution toward the group's destination altogether. Or, Puff may be persuaded to endure through the adverse conditions toward the mission's completion This lesson will require more time, and may call into question the group's allotted time frame, i.e. who wants to be slogging through steep, muddy trails in the dark while in a state of exhaustion?
13.) If the group goal or destination is achieved, the reward for that success may not actually satisfy the group's expectations. i.e. The panoramic view obtained by the group's overcoming adverse conditions may be totally occluded by the mists of the land called Hanalei, thus preventing any view whatsoever of the magical valley below.
14.) Have a little laugh and talk about it anyway.
15.) If all group members survive the expedition and get back to the hotel and live to tell about it, success is achieved and lessons are learned.
16.) Life is not about what happens to us; it's about how we respond to what happens. That's the Glass half-Full.