MANDALA

One of the reasons my husband and I decided to go to the Big Island (Hawaii) a second time, was for our daughter Emma to visit and experience the same beaches and places we did 4 years before, when we went. There was one beach in particular that was magical, where turtles went to eat, and play and rest. I wanted Emma to see that beach and touch the turtles and have the same experience I had when we went. The day we went to look for the beach, we arrived as we remembered, at the same entrance, but as we were driving, I noticed that everything around was different. After 4 years, it was natural to find things changed, but the area was completely different. The beach was part of a very luxurious resort, but as all the beaches in Big Island, it was public. We parked and started walking to the beach, and we couldn't find it. It was all rebuilt, and there was no sight of that magical place we visited before. I started getting very sad, and disappointed and after 20 minutes of walking around the resort, very angry. We finally got to the "beach" but were nothing like I remembered. It was full of people, there were two pools close to the shoreline, and there were no turtles around. I was furious. How was this possible? I wanted Emma to see the turtles, and to have the same experience I had. I couldn't understand why I was so pissed off. The place was still beautiful, but it was different. We saw the sunset, and as we were heading back to the car, Peter asked one of the employees what happened to the beach. He told us the Japan Tsunami had destroyed everything two years before, and they had to rebuild the resort and therefore the beach was completely changed. Riding back in the car, I understood why I was so upset, but I realized more than that. See, life is like a "mandala", every experience we have, is basically like a mandala. It is created in that specific moment in time for us to live it fully and enjoy it, in that precise moment. But then, that experience changes and stops being what it was. After a while, it destroys itself to give us the capacity to create a new one. That beach was my mandala 4 years before, but time and a Tsunami destroyed it and transformed it into something I was not "expecting" to find. That is why is so important to live in the NOW, and detach from the past. My expectations of showing Emma the exact scenery I witnessed before were destroyed in seconds, and with that came the sadness. I learned that every happy moment in life is ephemeral, it only last the time you need to enjoy it. Two days later we went to a beach that only locals know. It was full of turtles. It was beautiful. It was Emma's new mandala.