Day 6: Mindfulness vs Calamity, Finding Beauty in Between by Riya Dalal


Today was quite an eventful day, starting with a wrong turn and a quick 30-minute detour. Our end destination was the dryland forests in Waikoloa. The forest was hidden between two-mile markers and had its own concealed beauty. Our tour guide was a very kind woman, telling us about her family history and how this dry land forest held her heart and future based on its past.

The biggest things I took away from this hike were our moments of silence. In the beginning, before the Hawaiian chant was sung, we took a heavy moment to breathe and take in the air and forest around us. During this moment, I couldn’t help but hear the cars on the road directly above us. The gas engines moved up the hill, the birds silenced or moved farther from where we were, and these materialistic objects disrupted the breeze. Today was one of our last days on the island, and I realized a few things. The actions of people have disrupted the beauty of the environment as tourism, combined with the rise of technology, has grown. Preservation can only be done with compassion and love for the land. And calamity affects both the mainland and peaceful Hawaii, yet the awareness and passion these people have here for the environment allow for its peak beauty and most natural state.

To be able to ground ourselves is so difficult on the mainland because, again, calamity is coming left and right, and there simply isn’t a moment to sit still with so much pressure being kept on us as students, parents, adults, and humans. In comparison to here- and I’ve been here for five days- these people are so calm and at peace with the fact that things (in this case, the environment) need repair. They seem genuinely happy, not just on occasion. It’s beautiful how grounded they are in their culture and how connected they are to one another. It allows me to take a second look at my own life at home and honestly criticize how things are handled and the different types of values. Taking 10 minutes of silence in the dry land forest allowed me to acknowledge that calamity can only be settled by truly putting heart and soul into being mindful of ourselves and our mistakes but being compassionate about everyone else and our future.



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