Getting Away

Work recently took me back to Hawaii for the first time in 15 years and I had the opportunity to take a weekend and go the the "Big Island" for the first time and see something I had wanted to see for a very long time. When I was about 10 years old I wrote to the staff at the Hawaii Volcanos National Park and in reply I had received information about the park and a brochure on how to make my own volcano. My mother didn't appreciate my attempt at making my own volcano but I still have the National Park flyers and had dreamed of going there for a few decades. It's one of those things you've got to do in your lifetime - and I finally did it. It was not a disappointment.

The park is huge and open 24/7 - and not too crowded. The first night I was there I drove the Chain of Craters road from the Kiluea Cauldron to the seaside cliffs where the lava runs into the sea. There were very few people here and as it turned dark I found myself alone - for the first time in a very long time. It was great. I drove back up the road to a point about 1,000 feet over the ocean and stopped the car and walked to an overlook where I could see for miles in each direction. A full moon was reflected in the ocean before me and not a sign of human habitation could be seen. Not a single car, house or boat was visible anywhere. There was a soft breeze coming off the ocean but the surf was so far below that it could not be heard. In fact, there was no sound at all. The only thing I could hear was my own breathing and my own neck creaking. After being in crowded, shreaking, and pushing Shanghai for almost two years straight the silence and feeling of complete aloneness was overwhelmingly moving. I was filled with joy - and sat on a boulder of volcanic pumice, gazing at the heart-stopping beauty before me, soaking it in for a very long time.