I lived in California before we moved to Maui. At that time, and still really, there was a drought. Our beautiful, green state had grown brown and dusty. We were encouraged to pull out all the grass in our yards and plant drought tolerant succulents. Now succulents are beautiful, come in an amazing variety, and have a wild array of colorful blossoms, but they aren’t grass. You can’t walk through them barefoot and wiggle the grass between your toes. I missed the fresh fragrance that came from a newly mowed lawn.
In all the visits we had to Maui before we moved here, the island always seemed lush and green, and I looked forward to living where the green was a constant. Now living on the island, I discovered it isn’t always green here. Hawaii is the most isolated place on the planet. Everything we use here we either grown or have it shipped in from very far away. The water we use comes from the sky, and though it rains a lot, sometimes it doesn’t. We have no reservoirs or cannel systems where we can flow water in from someplace else. So, we don’t water our lawns. And when it doesn’t rain, the grass turns brown.
When I got up this morning I looked out into the yard verdant green. This made my day because last week it had been solid brown, and I wasn’t sure when the green would return. But we had a couple of days rain, and you would never know that the lawn was brown last week.
This made me think about the cycle of life. That just because some grass dies, more comes right in to take its place and green up our world. Everything is cyclical. With evidence of global warming all round, when asked about if it is real, a geologist friend of mine always answers: “The world heats up. The world cools down.” When you look at the history of our planet, that is exactly what happens. Just like with the grass: where the grass is green, the grass turns brown, then more green grass comes along.
And with human life, people are born, then people die. That is a sure thing for all of us. We can’t avoid either end of that spectrum. They key is not to worry about the past or fear the future, but to live in this movement, today, enjoying walking through this green grass. Make the most of it. Experience what you want to. Say what you want to say. And always stay in love, with yourself, with others, with this life experience. The grass is greenest right where you are with it between your bare toes.
