Memories of the Big Island

I think I learned to crawl to the music of Elvis Presley. Everytime I hear, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You  I feel as though I'm once again in a smaller body and my world is like a black and white photo that has been randomly color enhanced.

I loved Elvis, even before I started kindergarten! In 1962, he came to Kona to film "Girls, Girls, Girls!" and I thought I was at the end of the rainbow one day when the large bus that transported cast and crew barged through sleepy Kona. A few seconds later, a stretch limo sped by and I saw Elvis in the back seat, dressed as he is in the photo, with his arm around a blonde woman!

If that thrill wasn't enough, I got to spend a whole day down at Milolii where the movie was being filmed. When I gathered enough nerve to ask for an autograph, all I could think of offering was the white vinyl belt that I was wearing!

In the photo above, my brother Mel, is in the front row, third from the right. I'm in the second row on the far right. The umbrella pole seems to be sticking out of my head and I could have cared less. I was in heaven.

I am truly blessed to have had a happy childhood. As I look back, the joyful memories are the consistent re-runs: they comfort and sustain me. The bits and pieces of 'monsters and disasters' are like commercials, they're there, but I've learned to switch stations when they air (since remote controls were invented).

As I look forward, the rest of my life is full of dreams:they entice and encourage. The part that I'm learning to enjoy more is my present, my now. Right now, I have the power to decide which memories to replay (or even edit). Right now, I have the power to choose the life I want to move toward. Right now, is where all of my power resides.

I get to conjugate my existence:"I have had a happy life; I have a happy life; I will have a happy life." A lifetime of Elvis sightings!
Originally published in Kona Yoga News, March 13, 2006.