The sun has just risen over the peak of Haleakala, the 10,053 foot high dormant volcano that dominates the East Maui landscape; it’s a picture-perfect morning as Carol and I make our way down the white sand dreamway that is Keawakapu Beach here on the island’s south shore. The ocean is calm, small waves lap quietly onto the shore, through the polarized lenses of my sunglasses I can make out its clear gradations of color: olive to teal to royal blue and beyond. Gentle trade winds whisper their blessings to us, the vibe is languid and dreamy. The beach is sparsely populated at this time of the morning, older folks like us and a few locals with their dogs in tow are all getting our walks in before the tropical sun drives us into the shade. I notice a woman walking towards us, she has a long, thin stick in her hand and stops every few feet to scribble something into the wet sand just above the surf line. We smile and nod as we pass each other. I look down at the sand and notice the word joy written in thin, neat letters. Perhaps this woman was an elementary school teacher before retiring to Maui, the letters have that “teacher printing” quality to them. We walk a bit further and come upon the word love, further still and the word peace appears. This pattern of, joy, love, peace repeats itself for the remainder of the way down the beach until the sand ends at a rocky outcropping half a mile away.

What a sweet gesture this was, what a simple, beautiful way to put a little goodness out into the world. It made my day to see these hopeful words written so lovingly into the sand. Sadly,  joy, love and peace all seem to be in short supply nowadays. The daily news cycles are dominated by the malignant monster Trump and his slavish sycophants, spouting their poisonous words of anger, hatred and fear. But you know what? There’s more joy, love and peace in the world than you realize. These sentiments are more subtle, they whisper rather than scream and manifest themselves in quieter ways like the gesture by this woman on the beach today. So, what’s the message here? Get out there and spread the joy, love and peace in any way that you can and if you do, our collective whispers will eventually drown out the cacophony of anger and cruelty. Love will conquer hate, in my heart I fully believe this to be true!