Here at the foot of the soft Kohala hills we can look out across the verdant saddle lands that stretch out toward the soaring shoulders of Mauna Kea. A gang of clouds escapes the cliff tops of Hamakua and now jostle in the sweet ocean breeze, with blades of sunlight defining their shadows drifting across the pastures below. This bright air has traveled the broad empty reaches of the north Pacific and carries the scent of the sea as well as the rich tang of the rainforest. Now and then the perfume of the tall eucalyptus trees brings memories of creaking leather and stamping hooves, of weathered faces creased by a thousand days of tending to the land. It is such a paradise here!
This month is the month of Christmas, and I wonder how to portray the splendor of the month as the village cloaks itself in lights, and the giant old Norfolk pine at Richard Smart’s house bursts into a Christmas tree for all the world to see. If you are lucky you will be watching as bright moon light illuminates a raft of low clouds under the canopy of brilliant white diamonds turning slowly far, far above, and it will seem like the colorful lights of the giant old tree are like voices singing up to those stars. What would be their words? What I hear is a bright and joyful song, “Look here! Look here, stars of heaven! Here was an event that brought all men together, and we will never forget! Thank you! Thank you, heaven for sending us hope, peace and joy! Thank you, heaven, for breaking our bondage, so that we may never be owned again.”
This is the month of giving, and we really do take joy in giving what we can and giving what we have. Here in Waimea we are far from the swirl of shopping malls, so we don’t have as many experts telling us what to give or making us nervous that what we give won’t be just right. Most of us don’t have a lot of money, and this isn’t a place that celebrates that kind of thing anyway. Instead, we need to take our time and think about what we want to say by way of a gift to some one we love and those we care about. Our minds will sift through the details of the year, hunting for clues, and we will think about the treasures our friends and family are to us. This is the body of Christmas …the treasuring of those who have been given to us.
So here we are at Christmas time, savoring the return of the life of the land in showery curtains and glowing rainbows. We review the bounty of the year, such as it was, and we give thanks for what we can share. The theme among us is love. Really, it is no more complicated than that. We show our love by giving the things we have, just as God shared his son with us, or Christ shared his life with us, giving us all what he had. Many of our friends are not Christians, but they love the celebration of Christmas too, and Hanukah candles burn just as bright as the candles in the Hongwanji. And, love burns bright within us … perhaps more brightly than all the candles we could ever light.
Far, far out from shore in the middle of the greatest ocean on earth there is the peak of the tallest mountain on earth, Mauna Kea. It was not made by the breaking of the earth as the Rockies and the Himalayas were. It was made by the creation of the earth, and it is likely one of the last places ever discovered by mankind. It was almost like God saved the best for last, because it really is the best place on earth. For a few, just a few, it is also called “home”.
From this distant mountain peak that has grown such lovely shores and brilliant shallows along with her deep green valleys, we wish you a joyous Christmas, a bright and beautiful holiday season and love, lots and lots of love.
Bill Jardine, Principal Broker
Property Buyers Hawaii – Hawaii’s only Exclusive Buyers Agency
High Country Traders 201
Kamuela, HI 96743
(808) 885-6061
