Well. It's official.
I. Am. COLD!
It is a frigid 68 degrees here in Hawaii and boy, do I feel it! I've got my socks, sweatpants, hoodie, the whole shabang! To top it off, I've got a notion that my head is about to explode. But before that happens, my nose is going to drain every ounce of fluid out of my head and my itchyscratchy throat is going to be addicted to cough drops by the end of the night. Good thing they're the ridiculously delicious and completely useless kind...
If I'm cold, I can only wonder about my fabulous neighbor Katie, who has about one percent body fat. Hope you're doing o.k. neighbor!
You know what this calls for? This chilly, amazing weather is just screaming "BONFIRE!" Burning leaves! Smores. Weenies roasted on the fire. Sweaters, boots, and blankets. Maybe we could dig up some haybails? Do we have those here? Regardless, all of us in Hawaii, or at least on this piece of property, are hoping for a wonderfully chilly evening on Sunday so we can have a bonfire in style. Please hold out for us, cold air! Winter in Hawaii is awesome.
I wish I had my stylin' pair of boots that I left on the mainland. My wonderful mother sent me two comfy pairs of boots already, but now I'm craving those heeled leather boots. Who cares about the blisters? It's just so much fun to wear boots.
Believe me, I did not think I would ever be saying these things. Welcoming cold weather? No way. Not one year ago! Our One Year Anniversary of living in Hawaii is coming up fast on the 14th of January, and I cannot believe how much our mindsets have changed! Even the smells are different. Sometimes I'll get this whiff of a certain flower and it'll take me back to when we first arrived. The nostalgia that comes is so full of contentment. I wish my nose was still so privy to these smells, but it's like it's become a part of my system already.
One thing I really enjoy in life is watching others enjoy the beauty that finds such joy in my soul. This is why, I've figured out, I want my parents and friends and family to come visit me in Hawaii so badly. I want them to experience what I get to experience everyday- experiences, places, and things I find joy in- and I want to see them loving it. I love witnessing awe and wonder. I love the look on anyone's face when they view the Koolau Mountains for the first time, or see a Kailua sunrise, or see the grandeur of God's beauty from a mountaintop. I just love sharing in that moment with them. I feel so blessed that I get to witness beauties like these every single day- yet so often take them for granted. I hope I never forget to actually see the mountains.
Where I'm from, we have cornfields. Oh, and silos. Then some more corn fields. You can see for miles sometimes, if you can see over the cornfields...
That's why I'm in such awe of mountains like the ones in Hawaii. They rise straight up, rigid and defined. Sometimes I envision lava flowing down them, creating their shape. They're green from plenty of rain, and when it rains, the most glorious waterfalls stream down their ridges.
Despite all this magnificent beauty surrounding me, sometimes all I can think about it boots and scarves. Isn't that silly? Plenty of people make it happen here, though. On a cold day, you know, about 73 degrees, people of the island whip out their sleek jackets and leather boots. People like me though- people like me only have about five outfits that we tend to wear over and over, and we don't even have a stylish jacket or leather boots, or even a trendy scarf for that matter. So people like me think of all the beautiful winter clothes they have waiting in a box back in Iowa (where it is a little colder than here...only by about 78 degrees...), and we dream of the day that we'll get to dive in those boxes like it's Christmas. And it sort of will be.
In all honesty though, I do miss seasons more than anything. I think there is something spiritual about seasons. So does Nicole Nordeman, one of my alltime favorite artists, who sings a song about seaons that I can really relate to. I love the analogy of God using seasons to teach us about our own cycles in life. The fun, warmth, and bright sun of summer. The autumn- bringing harvest, a chill, a crisp change in the air. Wintertime- everything falling asleep, becoming silent, and freezing in time for a few months. And then Spring- the smell of flowers for the first time in months, dead things becoming alive once again, everything new resurfacing and becoming bright. I think God is in all of these.
I'm probably glorifying seasons in my own mind. I've lived twenty three years with seasons, without much appreciation, except for autumn haywagon rides (there's really nothing better). I grew up with best friends to dig snow tunnels with, even though we only made it five feet...maybe. The day the temperatures rose into the 50's again, we'd all be in slippers and capri pants, freezing our toes off, but so glad that spring was just around the corner. I don't miss the feeling of cold toes, but I sure do miss the changing of the seasons.
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