Aloha from Maui!
I’m on vacation with my husband Pascal in tiny, historic Paia in Maui, land of near-daily rainbows and preternaturally green foliage so lush your eyes can’t quite believe it. Yesterday we joined lots of other nature lovers, who made their way over to the Twin Falls—a popular landmark on the road to Hana—where, on the short hikes to two breathtaking waterfalls, we passed a shockingly huge grouping of bamboo trees that sounded like members of a BIG band had to be hiding somewhere inside them. Nature is crazy amazing!
Paia is also a go-to spot for kite-surfing, of which Pascal is an enthusiast (no kite-surfing for me, thank you; swimming, hanging, reading, walking, and napping on the beach are more my speed!). As it happens, we ended up in a surf shop so Pascal could pick up some important piece of gear he’d forgotten in LA. Unfortunately, they had cute things in there for women too, so as I was looking through the racks, trying to talk myself out of a had-to-have summer top, I looked over at the young woman next to me, and what did I see? Fabulous henna on her hand!
“Nice design!” I said. “Did you get it done here in Paia?”
“I did it myself,” she said, smiling.
“Wow! You’re a really good artist!” I said. “Where did you find the henna?”
“I bought a kit in one of the stores here,” she said.
“Really? What did the kit look like? Was it a yellow box with a hand on it?”
“Yes, it was!” she said.
“That’s our kit!” I said, trying not to jump up and down with excitement. Then Pascal walked by, and I said, “Look! she did that design with our kit!” And he turned to her and said:
“You got great color. Where did you buy your kit?”
You can tell where this is going. He asked her all the same questions I had already asked. She was super nice and kept smiling, but I could tell she was thinking, Ok, can I get back to my shopping now? So, I decided not to ask if I could take a picture of her beautiful henna tattoo, although now, I wish I had.
As I walked away, I thought about how, wherever I go, I run into our Earth Henna Temporary Tattoo Kits, which is so cool. The beautiful feeling behind henna—that it brings love, luck and prosperity, and that it is believed to be infused with the blessing of the saints—is so in keeping with a place like Hawaii.
Aloha is a greeting, which has come to be used for both hello and goodbye here. But in the Hawaiian language, aloha means affection, peace, compassion, and mercy. So, in closing, I remind you to practice your henna, and practice aloha!
