All posts filed under: life

Things I love about Hawaii

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Sunshine. The perfect balance between sun and rain, making the rain almost always welcome when it comes for a day or two every six-eight weeks. The hardly-ever-below 20 degrees Celsius temperature, even at night. The hardly-ever above 32 degrees Celsius heat. The many fine sandy beaches. The fact there is still possible to find an empty beach if you know where to look. The color of lush rain forest – deep, crisp green! Tropical flowers. All the palm trees, although imported. The fact that, even carefully planted and strategically placed, palm trees always looks natural and lifts the spirit. Most Hawaiians know how lucky they are to call the islands home and do what they can to preserve and protect them. Kona Longboard beer. Fresh seared Ahi. Hono/Turtles, and the fact that they are treasured and protected. Swimming with a  turtle is the most amazing form of meditation and you emerge with a new sense of calm of spirit and a desire to protect all marine life. Hawaii’s past. Every time I drive up Pali …

TV’s strong heroines

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It’s no secret that I love storytellers. They come in all forms; writers, filmmakers, journalists, musicians, painters, photographers. It is the basis for this blog – that the stories we tell ourselves shape the way we live our lives, and so they are very important. The question is what kind of stories are we exposed to? What were the stories that shaped my core that holds the beliefs after which I construct the world around me? Do my stories correspond to those of the people around me enough so we can co-exist peacefully together? In many places around the world the stories people tell themselves cause very real conflicts leading to suffering, plights and death. Politics is about making your beliefs into a reality that benefits the majority of the people living in that area, but leaving enough liberty for those who do not agree with you to also live fulfilling lives. But every day we witness the terrible consequences when people in power take it upon themselves to force their stories, with violence, persuasion …

Weekend in Maui

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A belated celebration weekend in Maui with my love. There were no end to the things we had saved up to celebrate; our fourth anniversary, my birthday, his end-of-semester, Christmas, Valentines, our engagement, us, love and life! It was the perfect way to close this chapter and I’m ready to embark on the next one now. I can tell because I have a very strong desire to dye my hair back to brown. The blonde me was a knowledge-gathering drifting student in Honolulu. Brunette me means business, in more ways than one. I really want to start a little business of my own because if there is one thing this year has taught me is that a sustainable life means live your values and value how you live. Dozens of job applications later it dawned on me that most jobs advertised are about making already wealthy people wealthier. The best thing I can do for this planet and my happiness is to make my living from an ecologically sustainable source. What a win-win situation! I …

The art of solitude.

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I’ve spent many Saturday nights like this. Contently alone, but restless. For some reason I thought I would outgrow it – this desperate longing to be anywhere but here, that anything fun is happening somewhere else, and that if I was there, too, I would finally feel complete and fulfilled. It’s the feeling that caused me to travel the globe for the better part of ten years, always in search of a beach, a building, a person. A feeling. I know now that an empty hotel room is a thousand times lonelier than a home, so I am grateful to have a home that I love so much. I know that trying too hard to insert yourself into somebody else’s life is a recipe for heartbreak, and that a beach, or a building, is just that unless you are there with the right people. So the only way to truly be happy is to be happy with your life and make sure that it is everything you want it to be, or at least on …

Hello world.

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My name is Joey. It’s short for Josephine and it’s the name I gave myself when I was fifteen. I live in Honolulu, which is an exercise in not taking paradise for granted and something I am working actively on. I thought this blog might help that. I have long blonde hair, which isn’t my real hair color. I have cool blue eyes, and for the longest time I wore deep brown contacts because I thought it fit me better. It’s hard to wear a lot of makeup with blue eyes, it tend to just make your eyes look small and beady. Warm colors blend better. That should tell you something about me. I’m not always comfortable in my own skin. I want to be, but then I don’t think I would really be me anymore. I write stories. Or I used to write stories, but I want to be a person who writes stories again. I believe in stories. It’s what separates us from anything else – our ability to give life structure and …