I’m a huge proponent of getting out in nature, whether it’s to relax or remove oneself from digital devices. I find it literally grounding, and though my family opted to travel to Leslie’s stomping grounds this summer (the Big Island), it was my first time, and I wasn’t sure what I’d discover.

We did plan for nature-y things like hikes (that journey to Papakōlea Green Sand Beach is no joke) and didn’t plan well for other nature-adjacent happenings (hello, deluges and supersized bugs).

But the things I enjoyed the most were when hopeful glimmers transformed into magical realities. I’ve organized our amazing encounters by type:

Water

I’m not a huge ocean swimmer even though I live close to the beach. I generally enjoy dipping my toes in the water. It’s been years since I’ve snorkeled—just the once, when I encountered impaired visibility and bland sightings (ooh, a sea cucumber!).

My kids convinced me to try again. This second time that I snorkeled, I hopped out soon after, panicking about the breathing and worried about the waves. They cajoled me into trying again; this third time, I relaxed…and found myself floating and observing so many colorful fish. We even noticed a sea turtle while snorkeling—wow!

One night, we also took the manta ray tour. While bobbing on the surface of the water, we peered down for signs of motion. The first manta ray we saw was pretty far away. Then one rolled right underneath us. I’d heard of such things, but this was literally inches from me. The manta had rolled and was coming at me with its mouth wide open! It was 99% exciting and 1% scary even though I know that mantas are supposed to the gentle giants of the sea.

Sky

So, remember that I said it rains a lot on the Big Island? The irony wasn’t lost on me that when we visited a waterfall, we got soaked not by the spray, but the water pouring from the sky. My light jacket was no match for the very wet weather.

Despite the rain, we still decided to follow our itinerary and go to the visitor center on the Mauna Kea peak. I’d read that the elevation (9200 feet) was such that sometimes you’d travel above the rain clouds  and get a spectacular view. As we drove, though, we encountered a lot of haze, and I wasn’t so sure… But then right before we reached the visitor center, everything cleared up. We got an amazing vantage of the sun setting. Talk about hoping and being persistent!

Land

Of course, the main attraction on the island for us was the volcano. We went to the national park twice to see the smoldering. Though we actually arrived during a predicted eruption window, the dates kept shifting. On that fateful day, we were on the other side of the island and thought we might swing by to check on the volcano at night, just to see if there might be a small glow. While we were on the way over, we got an alert that it was erupting. It seemed like we were driving under a red sky and headed directly toward a huge flame. And while I’d seen pictures of volcanoes in magazines, it was surreal to be close enough to hear the ground rumbling and see the rivulets of lava flowing.

In my publishing journey, I’m currently at that Hope stage. For the first time in years, I’m in between contracts. (Sorry to the fans of my previous series.) Now I’m waiting for the hopeful writing glimmers to magically transform into real books for readers…

Please share below about a hope fulfilled:

---