Leap and the Net Will Appear

Nearly two millennia ago, Polynesians set off in voyaging canoes on a journey that would lead them to the islands that would become known as Hawai’i. They were not imagining themselves as explorers “discovering” these isolated islands in the Pacific, rather, it was a belief that in making the journey, in setting out for the land, they were bringing the island into being.

Ancient Polynesians were conjuring the island up from the depths of the ocean without it having been there before. It wasn’t a question of whether Hawai’i existed or didn’t exist. They believed that an act of faith, of setting out for something, would allow them to find what they were looking for.

Their faith was rewarded. Upon completion of their 3,000-mile journey, they arrived at the Hawaiian archipelago, complete with rich valleys for growing food, incredible reefs for harvesting fish, and plenty of land to grow their sacred plants on and reproduce their culture. These islands sustained them for 1,600 years before contact with European settlers.

I was living at home in Michigan when Ashley, the director of Green Iowa Americorps and my “boss” for the past two years, contacted me about coming out with her to Hawai’i and being a part of the planning for the Americorps “Emerging Leaders in Deep Sustainability” class that would be taking place here in the fall.

I missed a chance to take part in an informational group call because I was on a plane, so I never got a very good idea of what I was getting into. I knew that we were staying at the Kohala Institute, and I knew the name of the class–that was about it. But I trusted Ashley; she’s a good friend of mine, and I knew she wouldn’t be getting me into anything that wasn’t worthwhile. So I paid my dues for the class and I bought a plane ticket.

My faith was rewarded. In the two-and-a-half weeks that Ashley and I spent with Lonnie, Devon, Rob, Adam, Jeremiah, Amber, Andrew, and Alexis, I had my life entirely transformed.

I learned Transcendental Meditation, an incredibly useful tool for personal growth and spiritual development. We snorkeled in tidal pools down in Puna. I watched Ashley hack open her first coconut. Andrew taught us how to harvest bananas. We watched the sunset from Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in Hawaii. Devon showed me how to reckon with abstract concepts–like leadership, personal development, and spirituality–in ways that I had never thought possible for myself.

It was a wholly worthwhile experience, so much so in fact, that I have returned to the Big Island to continue growing, learning, experiencing, developing, being and becoming.

Brad James graduated in 2014 from the University of Michigan with a degree in Earth and Environmental Science. He was a Green Iowa AmeriCorps member in Cedar Falls, IA for two years, where he performed residential energy audits, sustainability outreach and education for low-income households. Brad believes that lasting change begins on an individual level.