Sometimes You Have to Be Stuck to Appreciate Being Free

Yesterday, my niece and I took a surfing lesson in Kihei. That's another story for another time! Trying to get out of Kihei and back to the Kaanapali area (where we are staying) is what I want to focus on today.

After our surfing lesson, we cleaned up and had lunch at a restaurant near the beach. Then, we found a store we really liked and spent some time trying on clothes. After our shopping experience, it was time to drive the 50 minutes back towards Lahaina, so we could do a little more shopping and have dinner.

As we started out onto the roadway, we found ourselves sitting still in traffic. I mean STILL. The only 'progress' we made was when someone would turn off the road in exasperation. We were seriously stuck.

We heard on the radio that there was a grass fire on one of the only two roads into the area. We were on one of those roads. Traffic from the other road was being diverted to our road and we were stuck in a massive jam.

After sitting in the traffic, broiling for about 45 minutes, I decided to turn around, find a restaurant and just hang out for a while. This was certainly not our plan. We were going to go do a little shopping, head back to our condo and relax. That was not to be.

We spent about 1.5 hours in this restaurant killing time, and then it appeared that the traffic was moving again. We headed out, and although we hit more backups on our way (related to the fire) we were moving steadily the whole time. It felt so good to be moving!

It's all relative. The slow pace at which we actually ended up leaving Kihei would have been irritating and annoying to me any other day. When comparing it to sitting absolutely STILL in traffic, however, it felt wonderful to be moving!

Our plans had to change and we had to readjust. It wasn't any one's fault that it happened. It didn't do a bit of good to get upset or frustrated. We had to just roll with what we encountered. So we did.

There is no better way to appreciate moving freely than to be stuck or held back for awhile. That is an instant refresher course in not taking things for granted!

Appreciating everything is a practice I encourage us all to work with!

"It's all relative" is a powerful concept that it would be wise to remember.

Aloha!!