Kauai

Last week my little family and I took a vacation to the magical island of Kauai, the ‘Garden Isle’. We had a lovely time exploring, eating, and playing on the beach (though my 3 year old has an enduring fear of the ocean. It is pretty powerful and I suppose he’s wise to respect it. He still enjoyed watching it from afar and playing in the sand). It wasn’t all paradise of course, there were still mosquitoes and rain and I lost my phone to the ocean (but that was more my fault, not the island’s fault).

Overall we had a very sweet time together.

We also saw a lot of these guys.

If you’ve been following me on social media, you’ll know that’s the state bird of Hawaii, the Nene. It’s apparently endangered, though you wouldn’t guess it when you’re there because they seem to be all over the place. I drew it awhile back.

I find after I draw something, I feel a kinship to it. Since I spent a considerable amount of time studying the Nene — I took it in with my eye where it went through to my brain and down my arm and regurgitated back out through a pen — I feel like I really know it now. This not a super logical feeling; I was only drawing from a photo I found on Pinterest, but I still felt a special connection to all the Nene’s in Hawaii because of it.

I guess that’s a teeny tiny hint of how our maker feels about us and the rest of the world he created.