pū'iwa

Baby cloud created by lava lake

On a whim, we decided yesterday to head to the Volcano area late afternoon for a change in altitude. My friend had stayed there with his partner for nine months after the California wildfires had burnt their home in Berry Creek a few years ago, and Volcano was a place of healing for them. It is woodsy and cooler like Tahoe or Berry Creek and after a spell, it seemed like we were up in the clouds, much like puffs of cotton and a taste of heaven, which has always been a moment of wonderment to me. The white vapors seemed to be all around us until I noticed a group of people congregating in the distance and expressed concern that the wisps of white were perhaps plumes of smoke instead.

Like a 'kid in a candy store', a giddiness overwhelmed me as I bounced in my seat, when I learned that they were smoke vents from an active volcano. I had previously overheard that there is a place on the Big Island with active lava but had mistakenly thought it was at Mauna Kea. I found myself explaining to my friend how I love surprises, especially in the context of new experiences (YUMmy and full circle (part 8)), although perhaps to a rational adult, my explanation still seemed disproportionate to my level of glee.

Offerings

Flare-up in the evening sky

We navigated to various lookout points around one side of the crater, hoping to see a flare up in the lava lake. A number of places were closed, including the museum and the lava tubes due to structural instability from the last eruption in 2018. By the time we backtracked to the Kilauea Overlook, I was beginning to think that Pele would not bless us with its ember glow as the lake remained as black as the black sand beaches around the island, from the cooled lava. The lake, once full of lava, was slowly inching up since it collapsed in 2018, resulting in lava erupting and oozing out in some of the lower regions. 

A number of residents had recounted their personal experiences from the last devastation to me since I arrived. Similar to 9/11, some had to evacuate their homes for almost a year, with some temporarily relocating to other islands or the mainland. As the lava lake had increased by ten feet over the last three months, local residents came to pay tribute with offerings to Pele, in attempts to keep her temper at bay. It was with humbleness in my appreciation of the beauty of the vibrant red dance that Pele bestowed upon us later that evening, with the setting sun joining her in the dance, reflecting their union in the clouds with such warm hues of orange, red and all shades in between.

As I was reading about the collapsed crater in 2018, something caught my eyes at the top of the panel. The fact that it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the rest of the information caused me to pause a tad bit longer in disbelief. And just like that, the universe articulated it much more succinctly than I could, in the native tongue.

"Amazement; a surprise; a stupefaction on account of wonder"

~ "A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language" 1865