The Alchemy of Patience

In our quest to be ourselves, we face many obstacles . Negativity seeping in from nearly every direction, fuled by a culture in love with stress and superficiality. Joy often comes from slow processes and learning new skills. Film photography and pottery are two slow processes I have been enjoying. I had wanted to learn the pottery process for a while. I recently started having dreams about it, so I finally took some classes.

In a world of faced paced distractions, these arts are small rebellions, fusing attention into permanence. Victory is the stillness that now lives within bones—

Camera: Holga 120N Film:Kodak Ektachrome E100

Both photography and pottery require an unhurried devotion. A daring surrender to the slow, intoxicating process. No frantic clicks, no instant completion; only the thrilling pulse of anticipation, the exquisite ache of becoming. Both processes leave you with a spirit that burns with a fierce untamed joy of creation.

Ethereal Rapture of Place

The feel—or more precisely, the resonance—of a place can settle into your bones like weather. It’s not something I consciously thought about much until moving away from Hawaii, where the land itself seemed to breathe in ʻōlelo noʻeau, in stories older than any map. On the Big Island, life pulsed so close to the surface you could taste iron in the rain and hear the island cracking open at night. I began to wonder if the feelings were only memory, or if the earth itself was speaking in a frequency my body translated as joy or dread. Could it be the rocks? The wind? The blood spilled centuries ago? I’ve read the sparse literature on energy vortices—places where the planet’s magnetic field supposedly knots and intensifies. Kīlauea sits atop one of the world’s most active magma plumes; molten rock is a conductor. When lava cools into pāhoehoe or ʻaʻā, it locks in magnetic signatures like a tape recorder. Add trade winds shearing over ridges, stripping electrons from raindrops, and you get a sky full of negative ions—the same chemistry that lifts mood after a thunderstorm. Maybe the volcano’s heat turbocharges that process, turning the place into a giant ion fountain.

Some people seem to be more in tune with the energy of places, and some people don’t seem to notice at all. Just like some eardrums hear lower frequencies, some retinas see wider spectrums. Place-energy might be similar: a subtle electromagnetic murmur that certain nervous systems render as awe. This area fits into the supernatural or even spiritual, that has not been able to be explained by modern science, yet it is a very real phenomenon.

For us, it has been the decision maker for where to live. I ask myself, “Does this place feel magical? Do I feel inspired and rejuvenated?” Southwest Virginia is the only place on the East Coast that has given me a similar feeling to the energy of the Big Island, both light and dark. The Appalachian region is part of an ancient mountain range with complex rock formations. Granite, quartz, and other minerals common in the Appalachians can sometimes generate weak piezoelectric effects- electric charges produced under pressure or vibration. Subtle earth movements can emit faint electromagnetic signals. Quartz is especially known for this property.

The mountains remember being taller than Everest; they remember fire and pressure, and the long grinding kiss of continents. That memory leaks out onto the trails and rock faces. The quartz veins thread the granite like frozen lightning, fracturing light into ancestral rainbows.

The open meadows of Greyson Highlands feel particularly full of positive energy. On the flipside, there is a section of trail between Damascus and Backbone Rock, TN that feels very negative and heavy. There are often drug addicts camping along the trail for extended periods of time. Chicken or egg? Do broken people seek broken places, or do broken places summon them? Whenever I run on the trail through there, I feel like my head is being pulled towards the ground. I feel disoriented, time seems to slow down. The same piezoelectric effect may be working in reverse—absorbing rather than radiating, or resonating at a frequency that drags on the inner ear? In Cherokee mythology, there is a trickster spirit that was said to live in the area. That leads me to believe there is something negative with the area itself. I would love to figure out what causes a place to feel magical and positive, but for now, I treat the data my body gives me as gospel. I run toward the bright seams and step wide around the dim ones. It’s a fascinating topic, where the physical world meets the metaphysical.

Appalachian Breeze

It was hard to imagine moving away from Hawaii. There is something about the energy of the land that makes me feel alive, refreshed, relaxed, at peace….. Everything and nothing. Maybe it has to do with being in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, or magnetic energy from magma being so close to the surface, or the rich cultural history of Native Hawaiians? Something overcame me the first time I was in Volcano, a feeling that I needed to be there. For 15 years, I lived in wonder and appreciation that I was able to call Volcano home. I can summon the magic at any time because those feelings are ingrained within me and exist in my dreams. I love that culture is at the forefront in Hawaii and am grateful I was able to learn about Hawaiian values. They touch on the essence of what it means to be a healthy and happy human here on earth.

(Mauna Kea Summit)

We all need cultural values to thrive. Values tap into an inner source of profound knowledge and strength. It is kind of hard to translate into English because the words are concepts and envelope so much more than one word. Simply translated, some Hawaiian values are: Respect, family, humbleness, respect, being a steward of the land, helping others, personal responsibility, integrity, accountability, quest for knowledge. Again, that is a very superficial explanation, because the concepts are so much more encompassing, it’s almost a way of living life. Learning about those values and seeing them practiced, has been a treasure. I hope to practice and spread the values I have learned about.

(Running the Volcano Half Marathon for the 12th year last July)

Moving from Hawaii to Southwest Virginia was not an easy decision to make. What is crazy is how fast it happened! There was never a plan to move, more of a rapid realization it was the best decision for our family, the value of Ohana. The process of deciding to move, selling our house, buying a house in Damascus, Va, finding a job, and coordinating moving all happened in a month. I think I am finally catching my breath from the madness.

Six months later, I can see a similarity between Hawaii and the Appalachian region. The geographic landscapes of both have an abundance of beauty. The Appalachian region has a rich cultural history of food, music, farming, spectacular scenery, outdoor adventure and art. Much like in Hawaii, culture is celebrated and at the forefront of communities. I like being in places where traditions and customs of the past collide in the modern world to create a reimagined vision of the future.

Constellations of mountains
Humming old songs
Wavering shades of green
Floating through cold water springs
Shedding light on the mind
Where the living were once dead
But now are free