I love springtime
Long ago, well, in July of
2009, to be exact, during a personal crisis and financial crunch, I stood in amid an Oregon forest, in my horse
paddock and lamented this question: “Where would I be happy?’
The answer was
immediate. Talk about a thump on the head. And this was after we traveled to numerous
places searching for our little spot on the planet. (Arizona, Utah, New Mexico,
California). I don’t know if it was the Universe speaking, my intuition, God,
or wishful thinking, it doesn’t matter, I listen to all of those voices.
The answer?
“Check out
Hawaii on the Internet!”
After I found
a beautiful piece of property for half of what we owed in Oregon, my daughter
said, “Let’s do it.” (Meaning let’s move there.)
We cleared our
house of ten million years of accumulation—well, maybe 20, and packed up a 12 x
24-foot shipping container with stuff we felt we had to have. After our two
vehicles left on a big flatbed transport vehicle, aiming for the Seattle Port, one
husband, one daughter, one seven-month-old grandson, two dogs and two cats,
plus me, flew away to live off the grid in Hawaii.
The story fits
into a book called The Frog’s Song. I think the frog is me. However,
frog’s do figure predominately in the story.
A publisher
has picked it the story, and the most stupendous editor in the world is editing
it. She says The Frog’s Song will be
out within two years. TWO YEARS! Yipes,
well it ought to be shorter now, for we are about six months into the process.
The editor gives
her input in chapters, I rearrange them, and eventually, we will put all those flayed
chapters back together again. I am grieving for I wanted to quote Mark Twain, from
the book Mark Twain in Hawaii, Roughing
it in the Sandwich Islands. (Hawaii in the 1860’s) He had only shortly
before leaving on assignment for the most prominent newspaper on the Pacific Coast,
“The Sacramento Union,” adopted the name, Mark Twain. He spoke so eloquently
about the islands it made my mouth water, and I bet it would be yours too. The publisher,
however, is worried about copyright. We’ll see what happens. It is nice,
though, to have a gatekeeper.
Of course, I
am wondering if anyone will want to read The
Frog’s Song.
I‘m having fun,
though, reliving the experience without the nervous expectations, and trauma of
the first time around.
Aloha,
Joyce
(Aloha is hello,
goodbye, I love you. Aloha is doing good without expecting anything in return.
It is a way of life.)