I had originally intended to hold my Global Earth Exchange at a location where I have held other GExs in the past, at a military recreational area located on the shoreline of Waimanalo, Hawaii. Ironwood trees were planted there years ago to serve as a windbreak, and while these trees are invasive and quite detrimental to the native ecosystem, they have been a part of  the landscape and have provided shade to beachgoers over the years. Native to  Australia and other areas nearby, when the wind blows through their leaves, they make a distinct sound, similar to the sound of waves roaring in the distance. 

A few years ago, a coastal restoration protect began which included cutting down some of the trees  and replacing them with native coastal plants.  While it was sad to see the trees get taken down, the efforts actually restored the ecosystem to its more natural state, and allowed for the beach to build up in areas where there had been much erosion due to rising sea levels and the trees.

This past year,, several other trees, some of which had been there over 60 years, have also been taken down as they posed  a hazard due to internal rotting and susceptibility to falling over during windy conditions. Many of the trees that were further away from the coastline were getting taken down. It was heartbreaking to hear the machines whacking and chopping down these trees that had provided shade and evoked so many fond memories.

 I had planned for my GEx to go to the one of the areas where several trees had been taken down. However, on the day I went there, I found out I was no longer allowed to access the area, which brought up a lot of grief to not be able to visit this place again on my own. Although I could have held my GEx nearby, I decided instead to change my site to another site I had been considering holding it, which was an area  in my neighborhood where people had been using as a smoking area on their break where they worked at a nursing home. Every day, people left their cigarette butts on the grass, which would inevitably run down a nearby drain during heavy rains and end up in the ocean. I was actually rather delighted to find that someoen had cleaned up the area, so instead of spending time at this site, I ended up taking a stroll around my neighborhood with the intention of weaving the site in Waimanalo by spending time visiting and reflecting on all the trees that had been taken down in my neighborhood in the 10 years I have lived here. Through that act, I was also reminded of the different homes I passed where humans and their pets had also died over the years. My neighborhood is a circle that is exactly 1/2 mile one round, and on one lap,  I counted over 25 people, animals, and trees that had lost their lives. I remembered a tree stump that was once a beautiful jacaranda tree that left the black pavement littered with a glorious purple carpet during the flowering season, a spot where one morning I found two cats dead in the road, I passed the house where a once vibrant and dear friend lived who recently died of cancer, and where directly across from her house, a man recently  lost his his wife, who also succumbed  to cancer about a year ago. I passed the beautiful blooming rainbow shower tree adjacent to the remant trunk of another shower tree someone had illegally poisoned to give them a better view. Someone had once taped a poem to the tree as an ode to it as it was dying. There were so many other stories I was reminded of as I walked around the circle, and even noticed some plants missing that I am not even sure how long they had been gone, but also noticed some new ones that I never saw until then.  This stroll around my neighborhood gave me a perspective of it that I had not experienced before. It reminded me of the Buddha story about a woman who had lost her child and was experiencing deep grief. The Buddha told her he would bring the child back to life if she could find a home where there had not been any loss, and of course, she could not find any, and she eventually became enlightened, having come to the deep understanding of impermanence. As I came full circle around the neighborhood,  I reflected on how this place is is a vibrant community of caring people, other animals, and a diverse array of  plants and stones, and geological features.  I built an altar on the stump of the long gone Jacaranda tree upon which I placed several flowers I had discovered along my walk, and have since set the intention to do this walk and altar on a regular basis. 

 My walk through the neighborhood that allowed me the space to honor and reflect on the loss and destruction that had taken place, I also felt a connection to this place and how it continues to change from moment to moment, how it was once an active volcano,  and how over time became this place known to Hawaiians as mau’umae (wilted grass), and as the years passed, it was developed into a neighborhood, the place I live being the first house that was built. Today, the only native species are clinging to the edges of a hiking trail that is vegetated by mostly invasive species. Yet underneath that all the continuum of change, there is this unchanging presence that cannot be altered and that is the essence of this place.