On a walk into the mountains, I celebrated my gratitude for all that is…

The air is still cool as I lock my bike and start up the trail. Ahhhh, morning light glowing on the hillside! Lovely!! I wander along, still a bit sleepy…

The trees are standing so tall! I thank them and inhale some of their life-giving O2…it seems so green and lush in contrast to the Golden State?! The leaves are almost leaping out across the grassy trail, I can almost feel the chlorophyll working its photosynthetic magic! Life, what miracle…what mystery!…what gratitude I feel!?
My hunk of flesh and bones burns and perspires as I break into a quick sprint, just for fun…to feel my heart beat! My machine is working, I’m ALIVE!

…Ho! Wild horses! Not a bad gig they got up here…tranquille…munching at the plentiful foliage…two baby foals lie quietly in the grass, a grown horse rolls on its back in the sun…I bid them ‘tama’a maitai’ (bon apetite!) and carry on with my sprint until it hurts too much. I march slowly along again…some pigs and cows too, bumble in and out of the brush along the trail. Lizards dash on tree trunks and the wind gossips amongst the limbs overhead.

Almost there…

The top!! The belly of the lagoon shimmers in the morning sun–diamonds sparkling over turquoise! That turquoise…oh how that color really does it for me! Can’t ever seem to get enough of it…and petite tufts of puffy white trot across the vast ceiling of blue. The sea and sky are full of joy today, not a menacing cirrus or towering cumulonimbus, or jagged wind wave in sight. I can make out small lines pushing into the reef on the south coast…I know where I’ll be this afternoon…

I sit in the shade of the trees and contemplate gratitude…a notion with the ability to transform every moment. No matter what’s going on in my life, there’s always so much to be grateful for…I won’t think about the stuck throttle lever and the broken bilge pumps or the heap of musty laundry or the black mold all over Swell’s ceiling…no, no…and they aren’t all that bad anyway…look at this day!? I’m healthy and here to witness it!

Looking up, I see red in the tree above me…wild guavas!!?! They’re dripping off the trees all around!! And mangos too!…What a thanksgiving feast! I munch and munch and munch until I cannot eat another…and gather until my sacs are full. Thanksgiving harvest!! Plenty for my friends…and why not try to make some jam!?