Heart of Lahaina

20x30" oil / mixed media on canvas. 

With the lights all gone, leaves turned to ash and rose colored glasses removed from my eyes - I finally see you.

No more birds singing from your perch, people chatting beneath your bough, and stillness all around - I finally hear you.

I too was planted here and allowed to grow strong; every branch a new journey supported by local soil, a community holding me up as I grew. For years I walked by you in a hurry; on my way here or there and now, with all that static come and gone, I feel you... still standing...stronger than all those things which masked themselves as "important". I feel you Lahaina.

You can never be taken by mere elements because no one part of you stands alone - your community is rooted in the soil of pure love. of Aloha. I see not a burnt tree but something beautiful, as if for the first time. What do you see?