Aloha Friday: Heavenly Foretaste

Well…I knew it was only a matter of time.  *sigh*  Winter has finally arrived in the Bay Area.  It is cold and rainy with more of the same in the forecast for the next week.  If you recall, my ohana spent a week in Maui without me.  My cousins are back now, and I pick up the rest of my family from the airport today.  I bet you they’ll return freshly tanned with contented stomachs full of ahi pok’e and shave ice.  What?!  Me, bitter?!  Of course not!  I’m glad they had a great time.  Okay, perhaps a little.  But, hopefully, they will bring me back a bag of Maui Chips and a couple malasadas from Zippy’s.  For now, all I can do is think warm thoughts while gazing at this Maui sunset.

I took this photo at the Kihei Boat Landing.  I have always said that there is nothing in the world like a Maui sunset.  There is something about this celestial event that is completely captivating, intoxicating to the point where you actually wish the sunset would never end, that the earth would somehow stop its perpetual rotation. 

First, you are lured in by the colors and shimmering light reflected off the darkening waters.  Then, you can’t take your eyes away.  You’re hooked.  You have no choice but to see the sunset through until the last ray is swallowed up by the ocean.

Practically every night along South Kihei Road and Front Street in Lahaina, as the sun nears the watery horizon, people actually stop and gaze at the dramatic spectacle before them.  A silence falls upon the gazers on the shore as eyes widen and jaws literally drop.  Believe it or not, this actually happens day after day.  And it’s not an eerie silence; in fact, I find it quite comforting because we’re all experiencing the same thing together and despite our many difference are reacting in a very similar way.  It’s actually quite a phenomena.  And it doesn’t matter if you’re a tourist on your way to a luau at your hotel or a local who has seen thousands of sunsets before.  Each one is different, and each one must be enjoyed and savored like a delicate Moscato. 

To me, a Maui sunset is the closest thing to heaven apart from Mass.  It is a sweet foretaste of the bliss to come.