Meanwhile, Back in Manoa…

• March 2, 2015
• Hawaii

Eight and half years ago I moved from Chicago to Honolulu and I’m still discovering new things about the island.  I’ve been married the same amount of time and I’m still learning how to be a husband.  The moment I start to think I’m an expert is when I’m reminded that no, indeed I’m not.  These are mostly verbal reminders from my wife that contain the words, “you are not” and “an expert” for clarity purposes.

It’s amazing the conversations you get into as a married couple.  The other night Christi and I got into a passionate discussion about who was better at journaling:  Doogie Howser or Mr. Belvedere.

 

 

My vote was Belvedere because you have to respect a guy who journals in classic longhand.  She said Doogie Howser made it look cuter.  We agreed to disagree.  Neil Patrick Harris just hosted the Oscars,  so it seems his nightly reflections paid off.

 

Before we continue, if this post had a soundtrack I’d go with local singer/songwriter John Cruz.  He sings with soul and conviction and has a lot of fun doing it.  Here’s the title track I really dig off his album One of These Days: 

 

We moved to Honolulu in the fall of 2006 thinking we’d be here for one year.  Well,  the island laughed at that sentiment and here we are shy of a decade later.  After graduating from North Park Seminary in Chicago I was accepted into a chaplain residency program ( sounds fancy doesn’t it? ) and Christi was hired as a full-time RN.  Internships turned into jobs,  jobs turned into other jobs,  Christi went to grad school and I started taking improv classes and then we moved a bunch of times mostly on a street named Nuuanu and here we are.  It’s amazing how you can sum up your life in a few sentences.

What an incredible experience it’s been and one we could’ve never predicted.  We’ve met life-long friends,  explored neighbor islands,  found a church home,  and grown in our professions and passions outside of work.  It hasn’t been without hardship,  no doubt,  but at the end of the day we’re so grateful to be here.

Certainly one of the challenges of living in the most isolated land mass on earth is being far from our families.  This is why were we so excited when our cousins moved to Manoa last summer,  a neighborhood tucked in a scenic valley not far from where we live.  We recently got a chance to spend a weekend with the kids while mom and dad went to a conference.  It was a good experience for Christi and I to have a trial run at parenting.  God willing, we’ll have kids of our own someday and this was a fun way to ease into it.   A couple moments during the weekend Christi and I looked at each other and said, “we got this.”  Of course the kids are 10 and 12 AND we got to go home at the end of 2 days…so nobody’s getting over confident about their parenting skills here folks.

 

Here’s a few pics from our weekend in Manoa: (Click to enlarge)

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time stopping to just give thanks.  I tried to do that a couple times on this walk, to just pause, take a breath and be thankful for it all.  Something so simple and good for the soul yet something so often swept to the side by my frantic mind.  Roaming around the remarkable valley I was reminded of this verse:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever.  Psalm 106:1

Bonus Features 

Morning Glass.  Favorite coffee shop in Manoa and completely responsible for my Stumptown Coffee addiction. #stumptown #hairbender

 

Manoa Falls.  I like a good hike any skill level can enjoy, especially one that ends with a waterfall.

Cheers,

A

(Doogie pic courtesy of fanpop.com. Belvedere pic, clearly the winner in the debate, courtesy of http://blogvedere.blogspot.com/2009/06/revisiting-mr-belvedere-outcasts.html which appears to be a blog dedicated to the 80’s TV sitcom)

• Doogie Howser
• Hawaii
• John Cruz
• Manoa
• Mr. Belvedere
• Stumptown Coffee
• Waterfall