Hanai

 The word in a word in Hawaii that sw=means fmailiy and tha means family. People scoff. But if I were to say that world means "ssssssx" in Italian" or x in russian they might be okay.

But no, a third world country owned by the United States???

Hanai, means family you choose. Not because your cousin married someone. Or married someone. Or because someone you have known and loved someone one since you, who cares since when. 

My daughter. was here today. She made she choice to wake up early and wake up her boyfriend and come paddle with me and my canoe club.

That's the beautiful thing about those we invite into our "hanai" and to those " hanai" in which we become. We never feel it is happening. We become.

She was there. With her boyfriend at 6am, at Keauhou Bay to go paddling. Only one person - so who is Lily? We just smile. My teenage daughter I reply. Jim, across the boat replies, "Are they teenagers?". They will always be in my mind. 

Lily and I swim. We paddle back.

As we get the boats in and walk to the club. Jeff is there. 

Not what I was expecting.

Lily wasn't either. She had asked me earlier if he had paddled, I relieplied no. He captains late night manta dives. William, her boyfriend, had been caught up in old time "rowing" conversation.

As, my former, and also younger self walked up to greet him. Along with my duaghter.

Everything, everything, going to be all right.

Daily Habits

 The only way to do this again. Because I do TRULY love to write. Is well, to start to write ever day.

So, here is today. Write now. :-) 

Mission Accomplished

Ironman 2022

Everyone has been telling you your WHOLE life to be patient. Not one of your virtues. NO, I didn't do it (this time). I worked it. 

Not sure if you learned your lesson or somehow it arrived it in due time (as usual.....).

FIRST TWO DAY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ever! 😅Yes, EVER.

TWO years of COVID cancellations. ELEVEN years of wanting to be there on closing night.

In true Leasa style, it showed up even better. I was there on closing night. I was EMPLOYED by IRONMAN. I was on the VIP FINISHERS PLATFORM. 

SO many changes in my life over the last ELEVEN years. What am I talking about the last 11 years?  Not all good. Its been hard work to get here. Slow and steady DOES win the race, or at least it gets you across the finish line. Or to the start line. At least forward and not stuck in a place that you don't want to be. Hopefully, we are to the run now....

Many stories from the last week I can't yet put into words. 

One of my dear friends I lost in 2019. To say I was heartbroken over losing her is an understatement. (That's a song for another time). 

There was a large Honu (turtle) who appeared in the water just before the finishers were approaching the finishing line.  The turtle arm came into the air.

I'm on the finish line platform. I looked in the water. I waved to her. She said "You are welcome darlin" and swam back into the sea".....Yes, every single emotion you are feeling right now was there. Breathe deep.

The dolphins who appeared just before all the pro's jumping for the crowd. The dolphins made the news feed. Of course they did. 

I know this is my magic. This is my special place. I can feel the magic here. If it's my job to share it with others, I'm happy, I share my joy in all sorts of ways.

Saturday night. The closing ceremony was happening. The last runners were coming in. The magic of the whole event was coming to an end. I never stay to the very end.

I sneak out the side. I like to remember the moment, just before the end. The moment when everyone still is holding on to the magic. I like putting all the magic together. That place between dreaming and awake. 

As I sneak into the parking lot, the ceremonial drums are beating. We still have awards ceremony the next night. The lights are beginning to fade. The moon is full. Jupiter is above the moon. There are drops of Jupiter. 

Mission accomplished.

(I'll catch you up from 2016 - 2020 some other time it, but please do know, you too can heal.) 

Victory Lap

One last lap.......

Everything is set in place. "The car" has been delivered to it's next destination. Furnishings of the house are almost all gone.

Extra trashed picked up. Artwork and collectibles ready to go.

No - the house deal fell through. At least the Denver house. The Hawaii house is ready to we are closing on Thursday.

Thursday - Nolan's 21st birthday. The first time we ever went to Kona was on Nolan's 12th birthday. This has always been my weekend.

But oh no, we can't just "go".....

Going away party is tomorrow night. Seriously, well, who else would throw my going away party???

Nothing is in place. Tons of stuff still in the air.

Although, I think I have some new friends to meet and rent one of our places - a traveling nurse and her husband. On to the next adventure.

Tomorrow night is the "A hui ho" party (A hui ho - until next time) - 6:00pm - 10:00pm on a Saturday night during the middle of COVID (I guess I will have to explain COVID later).

Nolan  will be there, "but I might be late"

Duncan (coaching an Under 14 hockey team) - "tryouts don't end until 8, I'll get there when I can"

We are all doing our best to "social distance", but DAMMIT, you can miss you (or at least leave your hockey try-outs early for your mom's going away party).

Duncan coaches for the team whom he played for, the team I hosted Russian hockey players in the basement for a year.

I pulled the mom card.

I called the head coach.

Please don't tell Duncan I called you. Here is the situation: "I'm moving to Hawaii, the going away party is Saturday night starting at 6. He let me know try-outs don't end until 8 and he would do what he could to get there".

The coach and I had a nice wonderful conversation. He promised me he wouldn't let him know I had called him. Paul (the coach), I understand it's try-outs, but can you do what you can to let him leave early? He will NEVER ask you if this is okay.

Couple of hours later:

"Mom, what time is the thing on Saturday"

"Six - Ten"

"I'll be there"

Me: "Thanks for making it happen"

Him: "Of course."

All those years of volunteering. All those years of hockey mom, carpool, exchange student hosts. Carpools, Mother's Day brunches, trampolines, sleep overs and on and on........

The victory lap was worth it all.......



Follow us here for the next adventure:  everafterenterprises.com 

Dreams

I know I said I was going to not write, but I have to get this story out of my head. - It might not look pretty, but it was AMAZING.

I was in Seattle for a week. There for work. BUT, a very, very good friend of mine now lives there.

We have been friends since he was 15 and I was 19. He and his brother are, well, my brothers. Not by blood, but you don't get to choose your relatives. You do get to choose family though.

His first wife was murdered 11 years ago. I've written about her many times. Wrote about the tragedy. Wrote about the wife he married 5 years ago.

He has a little boy now. He and his little boy spent the weekend with me at my hotel. It rained the whole week I was there.

We had so much fun. We did tourist stuff. We swam in the hotel pool. We hung out. We hadn't seen each other in about 3 years.

His first wife's name was Vanessa. Ness.

So of course, I had dreams with her in it. You can't help it. (Or now that I'm sleeping again, I'm dreaming again).

Sunday night, I fly back to Denver. I fall asleep on the plane.

In my dream, I tell Ness to go find Hil. (Hil was the teenage friend who died summer of 2016.) Ness was active and adventurous. And, while in real life, she died at 29. So in my dream, I realized that she was 29. Hil was 18 - they could be friends. They would be good adventurous friends.

They are on the top of a mountain. About to ski off - I tell them to go have fun.

And the plane landed in Denver and I woke up.

Knowing Ness and Hil are off playing. My heart so full...........

P.S.

Obviously writing is something that is not aligned with me being without my kids. Without Hawaii.

Update:

• I've had 3 hockey players living in my house this fall. 2 are from Russia the other is from the USA (Minnesota). It's been very interesting. A good thing, yet I'm running the dorm I always new I would run one day.
• D is in Conn playing hockey. Talking about school next fall or Sweden for a bit or staying in NYC to model (I wish we we all had that self confidence).
• N is in Oregon going to school - pledged a fraternity. Girlfriend here in Colorado going to Boulder.
• L is in Mass going to school - Class President and an activist on campus. Island girl gone mainland. 
• Me - planning a public wedding ceremony (the date, place & time are correct - more details to follow) June to the "crush of my life" on my island. Still raising CCI dogs to help those with their independence. Planning travel. Still trying new things. I completed my TENTH half marathon last fall - 10 in 10 years. 2 full marathons in the last 10 years too. Someone told me there is a "7 continent" tour you can do...... Or maybe, there might be new adventures to be had.

I do miss writing. Just not here and now.

I can't promise this is the end of these stories.  

I can promise, there will always be many more adventures in store........

The DNL spreading their wings.

Love Always,

DNL

DNL + (Me)

(Don't worry, this isn't "Your typical Hollywood Ending"  - this is your island style, DNL, commercial break....)

See ya in the future.....

BackUp Failed

Technology is not one of my strong suites.

I pretend I'm adept and keeping up with the times. But I'm also the person who has a cracked phone screen 80% of the time.

I can't:

• get my old music on my new phone.
• upgrade my home computer without losing what is currently on my computer.
• find where my files are on "the cloud"
• figure out where the heck the "cloud" is.
• back up everything on my phone.

There is a bunch of stuff I do know about technology. I also try and learn as much everyday about what is coming next. I don't have to learn how to do it. I don't even have to use it. But I do think it's important to learn what is going on outside the bubble of my world.

Recently, I bought a Sudko puzzle book. There are days when I think my brain is used for nothing more than rote memorization of the things I've already done. By engaging our brains, we keep them active.

The phone that I own is now considered "older" - it's almost 3 years old. 

Daily I receive a message stating "Your backup has failed".

My inital instict is to want to scream at my phone: I KNOW it's failed - I can't figure out how to change the memory settings, not pay anything and keep all my pictures and videos on running on this device I carry around in my hand.

We are a society of wanting MORE. Faster. Cheaper. Better.

But what you realize is that while you are out there searching for Faster. Cheaper. Better., what you have works really well.

Some systems don't need a back up. Some clouds have nothing to do with the weather. Others do. I live in Denver, we don't have clouds here.