Papaya's

It was a tuesday, I'm sure

delivery and stock the shelves day

Papaya's Natural Foods in Kapa'a, Kaua'i in the late 1990's

hippies and locals of all kinds

a hub of community

my first job after arriving on island

married and with a 4 year old son

I was not looking to fall in love

hell, I was looking at how to get out of the facade of love I was in

but there you were, that Tuesday

pallets of dry goods, boxes lining isles making the store smaller than it already was

I, in the corner, stocking chips

you simply walking by

eyes locking on mine

for an instant and eternity

hot, humid, sticky Kauai day

the kind that makes everyone glow from perspiration

I learned later in hula that our sweat is the life giving waters that we offer up in sacrifice to the atmosphere when we dance

especially in ceremony

when our eyes locked that day, in that moment in time

we entered into ceremony together even though we did not know it then

it would be 2 months before our eyes would meet again

this time, finally, you were at my register

somehow summoning the courage, I ask your name

gesturing with your hand from you heart you said "Kawika"

that simple gesture

your smooth kind voice

rocked me to the core

as if Pele herself came and lit the fire of my kundalini and sent it erupting out the top of my head like a volcano

I felt I may burst

cheeks flushed red

breathless

I had to ask you to repeat yourself

your name and the sensation of you so completely foreign yet oddly, undoubtedly familiar at the same time

as if l already knew you, like we planned this during our life between lives

soul family, soul mate

recognition of lifetimes in one small instant

our sacred dance just beginning

our lives never the same

a love and partneship beyond our wildest dreams

continually unfolding before us

even after all these years

I look in your eyes and I am home