Assisted Ascent

Happy Easter! This was one of the views from my window heading back to Oahu from Hilo yesterday. There were no words to describe the unique and explosive sunset I saw above those clouds the whole way home, but there are powerful and personal words this view moved me to share.

As the plane took off and ascended out of Hilo, it was dark and the rains were beating hard against the windows of the plane. On top of that, as we moved through the cloud cover there was some brief yet pretty jarring stomach-in-throat turbulence that shook the plane violently before we finally climbed through and above the thick clouds to smoother skies where this majestic sunset was opened to my view.

The symbolic nature of this experience for me was that just minutes before I endured another round of some emotionally excruciating experiences I've been having recently having to do with the interisland custody situation with my children, who live with their mom in Hilo. The heart was very heavy and the eyes wet as that plane took off and it felt like that rain was beating on more than just the plane. The process of feeling this, followed by the ascent through the storm and into the beautiful sunset, however, was an experience I believe I was deliberately meant to have and I felt lifted from sorrow and taken to a better place, as if I was being told "look here, I have something to show you." I looked, and what I saw amazed me, calmed me and gave me hope in the bigger picture of what my Heavenly Father has intended for me, despite the bleakness of what I felt in that moment. This was definitely one of the more impactful tender mercies I've ever experienced in my life.

It reminded me that no matter who you are and what you believe when it comes to God, religion, "the universe," faith, fate, chance, etc., whatever - there is beauty all around us and despite the ugliness we sometimes find ourselves subject to, if we choose to behold and be grateful for that beauty, we will find ourselves being lifted from challenging circumstances into ones that are more manageable.

Personally, I believe I was deliberately meant to have this experience and I know that such lifting and so much more was made possible by Him who rose on the third day, He who is the true reason for the celebration of Easter, who broke the bands of both sin and death, making it possible to be rescued from the beatdowns of life and lifted to a higher and more beautiful future. Aloha and Happy Easter!

First view on the ascent

Can't imagine the view the pilots must've had!

Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa

Fire Sandwich!