I am sitting on the plane awaiting take off for Hawaii.  It seems the plane is not that full and I am sitting on a Boeing in the middle of 3 seats in the middle of the plane.  I want to sit next to the window as there are a few seats available.  The captain did say not to move seats but I really want to watch the city disappear beneath me and connect to nature, so I do test that boundary.  I sat there and the steward did come up to me and got me to move back.  I complied gently and later he came and told me they were emergency seats and I had to be briefed.  I noted how important his communication was as it made me realise why I was asked to move.  I thought it was just rules.  I saw the importance of communication in conflict resolution.

I felt this trip would be good as I am on my own and can just reflect.  I can also lie down.

The plane started down the runway and again, I focussed on the purpose of my journey to being REAL HOPES to the US.  I felt to surrender to life and just let it happen.

I did move across to the window seat (not emergency) and watched the clouds and marvelled at the beauty of our world.  I am like a child just glued to the window, I always marvel how others shut their shades, I am a seasoned traveller but never get board with the reality of being up in the air flying.  I love it. 

I was aware people were noticing my colourful jesters jacket and just noted my awareness.  This trip is going to be about noticing myself as what occurs within creates without.

Qantas had an inflight movie.  I noted these planes didn’t have screens on each seat, as a market analyst I saw this as differentiating them from the competition with more modern planes, it highlighted to me the fleet was old.  I normally wouldn’t fly Qantas cost wise but they did at least provide food and I don’t have much money to spend on food.  So I was grateful.  Also the flight was 10 hours and no crazy stop overs that you suffer on the cheaper flights.  Also there are timetable changes more regularly on the cheaper flights.  I did note as I came into the plane the single seats in first class and the fact the passengers can lean back and put their legs out.  I just observe how money divides and gives more to those who are seen as paying more.  However, with my 3 seats on which I could lie down I saw no difference in the reality and smiled at the illusion of wealth.

I found lying down didn’t send me to sleep.  Another issue I am confronting is my sleeping pattern.  I realise I couldn’t afford sleeping tablets so have to face my concern with not getting enough sleep.  As a clown it is so important that I have full energy and do tend to worry that I may not sleep if I have to get up and clown.  My realisation this time is how do I know I am not meant to have sleeping tablets, I don’t have them.  How do I know I am better off, it forces me to look at the mind rather than sedate myself for goals.  It is to look deeper into why I am not sleeping and perhaps to even say to myself I am having enough sleep and let it go. I suspect the latter is the reality.  I do move around a lot so I am used to being in different places every few weeks.  No-one would believe how my life moves and I never know where I am going to live.  I just have to trust in life and again, this is my peace work to allow life to move me rather than myself be the controller.  I have to learn to trust.

I imagined what would happen if the plane was to crash, could I just sit in my seat and be at peace with life as it is in control and allow it.  I felt probably not so much now but maybe in the future as I come into the knowing that my real self is the energy alive in the body.  In fact in meditation it is to identify with the energy body not the physical identity.  Many are attached to their identities and I am realising the reality is that I am not my body, I am an awareness moving through space and time.  Interesting thought hey. 

So I lay there on the plane with my makeshift bed, blindfold and ear plugs and was pretty happy and my legs relatively straight.  I didn’t sleep but just accepted it.  I rose with the lights coming on in the morning and breakfast on its way.  I had a lovely omelette with mushrooms.  I sat looking out the window with my cup of coffee.  I saw the most spectacular sun rise.  The sun was red and stunning.  I just marvel at the colours as the pink permeates and traces the clouds in the sky.  Natures glory.

I checked out the map and saw Hawaii as this little dot in the Pacific I marvelled how this became United States territory.  Of course we all know about Pearl Harbour and the Second World War.  I am interested to learn more about the Polenesian people and the history of Hawaii.  I also reflect on climate as this little island is really isolated.  I wonder at the air quality, it should be good given its isolation.

So we start to bank and feel the plane coming into land.  I am about to land in the United States technically and aware of my journey opening up.

The plane lands smoothly.

I notice the palm trees and as we walk through the terminal and travel on the automated walk ways I see the pictures of the Hawaiian people.  There presence is clear here and they are indeed the original people.  They remind me a lot of Maori’s and even in their art there are similarities.  They are related for sure.  They are a larger people but they have a beauty about them and I just love their dark skin and culture of flowers around the neck.  You an imagine these islanders before white people came.  What a paradise they lived on, I guess for all indigenous life was paradise.   It was about fishing, the climate and the tribe.  I can only dream of such freedom.

We wait in immigration and I speak to a nice woman from Sydney.  Very tall lady.  We speak of the finger printing and thumb, she brings it up and of course this connects to terrorism.   We speak of Australia and she tells me how Julia Gillard (PM) was speaking of Defence and we both speculated on why this is important given there are no threats to our country.  We marvel at politicians and how life is changing.  I told her I was attending the Peace Forum and she was interested. 

Finally I get to customs, didn’t take too long.  The guy was a lovely tall brown skinned (don’t like the term black) guy.  I felt very chipper he asked for my finger prints and thumb print, then did a retina print.  I just marvel at brave new world.  However, I don’t care I offered my elbow print and he laughed.  He said he loved my hat.  With that he stamped my passport and I was allowed in as an acceptable person.

I left the baggage collection and walked outside to see a flyover for cars and people milling around.  Didn’t feel like an international airport.  I wondered at my host.  I don’t have a phone so had to eventually borrow one to find her.  She had given me the home number which is why I wasn’t getting through, turns out she had been around 20 minutes earlier as one of the airport staff had been told about me and he connected us.  He told me she was in a red Mercedes.  Sure enough some 10 minutes later she arrived.  I sat in the drivers side (Australia) and she then opened up her world to me.  She was curious about me.  She did offer me a car which sounded good but after some reflection I was aware there would be some problems with driving to the Conference, but will speak of that later.

She told me of Hawaii and I noticed she pronounced it with an emphasis on ee almost separate with a gap.  She had a lovely Texan voice and turns out she had been in State politics.  I came to learn they were not too bright here in bureaucratic circle. The same could be said for Australia.

She spoke of their being no direction on the island – no dedicated north, south, east or west.  It was described by the mountains and the roads tended to be build on the curves on the island.  So you could drive north then go south as you travel the curve.  I noticed the 3 lanes of roads and mentally tried to make notes of the fast lane.  I will be driving in the US in San Diego so am getting comfortable with the other side of the road.

She spoke of the city becoming more sprawling she had been in the 1960’s and 1970’s and it was not a big population.  It had grown but seems it is primarily a tourist place with some commodities such as papaya.  The land is very fertile given the volcanoes and there is an active volcano that has been erupting for years.  I wondered at that.  The soils were good for growing.  As she was a farmer’s daughter she was aware of the fertility of the soil. 

She spoke of oil rich Texas which is liquid gold apparently.  We discussed a bit of politics, I marvelled at how we identify with leaders given their similarities or differences to us.   I reflected on we tend to like people similar and dislike people who are not.  I wonder at democracy as a philosophy given how people are positive/negative on the basis of agreement.  I love the idea of difference and learning from the sand grating in the shell to produce the pearl.  That is what I feel the pearl of wisdom is, it is from those differences and I think the founding fathers and those in the Greek Agora were aware of the importance of difference in shaping common sense.  I do think the people on the whole have common sense.  We did talk about the apathy of people and there was a feeling that this generation are apathetic and allowing of things.  I sense there is probably truth there but it leads you into thoughts about empowerment and whether people really feel they are heard and ideas acted upon.  I’ve had moments in my life where I saw my own apathy but when suddenly I felt in a position to really help, did so.  So psychology is behind it and media is another big story.

We drove to her house and it is a lovely house, quite deceptive from the street, seems suburbia.  When you go inside it is 3 levels and beautiful white furniture, floors looking out over the tropical forest with a pool below.  It looks like a wealthy home.  Her former husband was in the military as a doctor and served in Vietnam and they have two adopted children.    She herself is quite accomplished with degrees in Criminal law and having studied different topics even Asia.  I found her a woman who had a keen mind and had really loved learning.  She highly valued education and it seems her father was a wonderful inspiration in her life, a person who felt you can do anything.  I reflected on my own father who really didn’t show that much interest in my life (that is not a negative).  My dad was a self starter and came from a generation where you just get up and do it, never ask for help.  Dad wasn’t parented by a father so his role was not clearly defined.  Sounds like my friends father really loved being a father and taught his daughter that she was free to be who she wanted.  A very valuable role model it seems. 

Hawaii seems to have a multicultural feel to it.  There were Japanese brought to work the plantations.  There are phillipino’s here as well coming for work.  There is a large US naval base.  The streets appear clean and the homes seem to be quite large with multiple cars.  My friend told me that people tend to buy new cars a lot.  I couldn’t imagine that in Australia but we discussed 0 finance and the availability of new cars.  I thought of the environment given built in obsolescence.  She noted the cars don’t last long.  That is the outcome of profit not quality where things are built to last.  In fact it is greed to be clear.

There are 3 islands I believe but am to discover that more over the next few days hopefully.  I wonder at the relations between the Polynesians and Caucasians.    Similar ot the indigenous aborigines in Australia they have to put up with the white presence, they have to accept it is what it is, there is no other way.  They are not leaving.  I do see lessons for all as reality unfolds the way it should and in essence we are the same people but we appear different on the surface and have different beliefs and customs, but we eat with our hands, breath through our noses and are configured the same.  Ultimately we are looking at a global melting pot where people are travelling more for economic reasons and countries are changing demographically, so we cannot hold back the tide of change, the challenge is how to live in integrity amongst this change.  I as a white person don’t necessarily identify with the dominant culture as I see myself as part of a oneness with nature and see life as a result of my thoughts.  I am not interested in getting as much as I can I am interested in giving and learning from others as teachers, no matter creed, colour or gender.    I am cultivating an awareness that they are me, so if I don’t like something look back at self.  Most won’t do this as we feel good when we are right, but to move past right and to go for truth ultimately takes you back to yourself to own your thoughts.

I’ve been tired from jet lag and caught bits and pieces of sleep.  Really noticed it on this trip. My world trip was a gentle movement across the international date line, this was direct and the body clock is out of whack.  We did walk to the shops and I noticed the electric pumps for electric cars.  Apparently it is free on the island but they are aiming to meter it.  I wondered at CO2 emissions given it is electricity.  Why not solar power.  I am told by locals there is a lot of solar power here.  I wonder about wind energy given it is an island in the middle of the Pacific.  There does seem to be more consciousness here, although I will observe that more if it is true.

Even in Starbucks you can put your coffee on credit, don’t have that in Australia, I wondered about that.  I am mindful of the paper cups and the waste always that is in the back of my mind.  They do have waste disposals in their homes, we don’t have that in Australia.  I am told everyone has the crunching disposal unit in the sink.  Not a bad idea no blocked plumbing.

They do have taxes on consumption here which they had another name for, but I recognised it as a form of consumption tax as it is on the gross expenditure.  My host was quick to point that out as unfair.  Which of course it is.  She made clear to me the government sought more taxes to fund itself.  However, she said that some of the developments and road planning were badly done.  A viaduct (I believe she said) was built from opposing ends and didn’t meet in the middle.  She has tried to get traffic lights in on dangerous intersections, with some success.  She has been in numerous committees and appears quite well connected. 

I observed the life in the material world and wondered at the spiritual world I seem to dwell in.  I am just not floating in career circles or the imperatives of life.  Many here apparently hold down up to 3 jobs and you notice the traffic starts up at around 5.30am.  I wondered at tiredness as a core problem for road rage, violence, broken marriages, it fleeted through my mind.  I felt for the people.  Even the buses are crammed and they are likely to not get a seat.  Such is the suffering in modern cities.  She explained to me there is only one main freeway in and same one out.  If there is a wreck, as my host put it, the traffic slows to a crawl or stops.  They don’t have a modern light railway, it is reliant on cars.   I will discover this is Los Angeles my next stop.  My host tells me that Americans have a love affair with their cars.  It is hard to find the love in traffic jams for up to two hours I contemplated.  Moreover, my host tells me that there was plans 20 years ago for a railway which would cost 20 million but it was stopped by power brokers at the time and now they have finally decided it is needed and will cost billions.  So poor decision making was made clear to me 20 years ago and the idea of power politics getting in the way of public service.

We had a little drama today, my host was trying to get my bath going and kindly set up candles.  It turns out the butane lighter was next to the candles and exploded.  We both wondered why the alarm and thought it was false.  My friend went out to apologise to the firemen.  I came down to check them out, they do have a reputation for being cute, so I was curious.  However, I noticed a weird smoke and told her.  She had that frightened look in her eye and realised, yes, it was a fire.  The firemen came in and opened the windows and put on fans.  She had already put out the flames.  Again she apologised but it was all good, that is what emergency services are for.  They were nice guys and we had a bit of a laugh.  They looked funny in their suits, oxygen tanks and the hoses at the ready in the truck.  Apparently they don’t get a lot of fires as there is no gas in Hawaii, they are on electricity, so usually electrical fires.  There is only two trucks on the island.  I wondered about that.  They do have some fires and I have been informed there has been a drought, even though I am witnessing constant drizzling with the weather.  I thought climate change and others confirmed it.  An island in the middle of the Pacific is having a drought, that is interesting.  The good thing about travelling the world is that you experience lots of climates and everywhere I’ve been it has been the same issue, people recognising changes in climate.  It has not about lobbies they are remembering how it used to be and can see the changes. So it is a real phenomenon.  I just wonder how human’s will change to start to harmonise with nature… the next blog explores Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO’s).

Quite simply there is much we do not know, the knowing of this changes everything.  Another koan to ponder.