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Sunday June 3, 2007

Just after midnight we take off for Honolulu, Hawaii. A drink and a snack, then a movie is started, you know where this is going; I am asleep before the introduction is over with. When I awake I look out the window at the most amazing thing. There is a thin bright horizontal line in the middle of our view. In seconds I realize it is the horizon as daylight is approaching. At 40,000 feet the ocean is either black or a very dark blue; as more and more sun light hits it, it is blue. More of the ocean is seen as we are looking down at the ocean, instead of over it. Looking up at the sky; it and the ocean are almost in equal proportions. In this perspective the horizon is in the middle of our view.

 

A minute later, the midline widens and refines itself into two colors. Just above the sea the horizon is a band of bright yellow, followed above by dark orange or a red color and then definite blackness that must be unlit sky. In contrast, looking at the sunrise every morning on Bella Donna over the ocean, the sky dominated our view and these colors were never seen. Many mornings clouds hide the horizon; the sunrise experience is not always spectacular.

 

A few minutes later our view is a horizontal rainbow of color. A dark blue ocean and a light blue sky with yellow, red, orange, pink and green sandwiched in between. You can see the colors change shade keeping rhythm to the heart beat of the rising sun. I wonder about the green color that keeps slowly gently changing as it blends into the pale blue sky. I remember seeing these same shades of green during a rare instant of a green flash at sunset. I have only seen 2 or 3 during the hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands of sunsets I have been privileged to witness; I am old you know. One I recall as the most vivid; it occurs on a chartered catamaran just outside Admiralty Bay in Bequia in the Grenadines, the south Caribbean. I wonder if somehow the same green color is generated at sunset and sunrise.

 

 Suddenly I notice an irregular dark shape over the still dark blue ocean below. It occurs to me that it is an island. I study its shape. Then I notice another island off the first islands north coast. Both are large islands. In a flash it comes to me that I am looking straight out at Kailua Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii; I am home; Let me off please. I think of how much I enjoy our home in Kona Bay Estates. The only person who likes it more is Donna. In 30 minutes we will touch down in Honolulu.

 

At 5:45AM the Honolulu airport is deserted. A few tourists and fewer locals are wondering around waiting to board a flight. After international immigration and customs check, welcome back to the USA Mr. Johnson, we are dumped into a strange place. Even though I have been through the Honolulu airport many times I have never seen the outside, street side, of Honolulu airport; well once in 1981 when the airport was much smaller, we slept on a green grassy lawn in front of the airport between flights. Like green beginner Hawaiian tourists, we have to ask where and how to reenter the ticket check-in area. Back inside we settle in for the 6 hour layover. All Sunday morning the airport is quiet I sat on the floor and finished my previous day’s blog.

 

The day ended back in Donna’s arms in the Sacramento airport. My body, my mind gosh my entire spirit was moving at a slower pace than the world around me. I had definitely “slowed my roll” over the last 2 months. I was in no mood to shift into high gear now. I think I will try to live life at my own pace from this day forward, today is the first day of the rest of my life. I realize I have found a rhythm and lived that rhythm recently and I prefer it.

 

God Bless Bella Donna.