I’ve been meaning to write this column and get back into the Coffee Chronicles for over a year, but things slipped away from me again. I PROMISED myself I would write it a month ago, and I was no closer to writing it when I woke up this morning than when I made that promise.

I’m doing sales again for my lab, going door to door in my area and beyond, and the long drives give me ideas. Then, I come home, exhausted, and ignore the computer.

While going through things to add to my adverting and orthodontic videos, I came across this meme and it nudged me to sit in front of the computer and just write.

I ran across this memes years back and loved it. It goes back to things that I’ve always said. “Perspective: Use it or lose it.” And “It’s not what you think!”

I found this meme one time I was about to go to Hawaii. Everybody I knew was freaking out because we were not altering our agenda and still planned on going to my favorite place on earth: the Big Island of Hawaii.

“But there is a volcano erupting!”

Volcanoes have been erupting in Hawaii for millions of years and we wanted to go! We wanted to see the eruption and get a chance to play with lava.

I was actually surprised by everybody’s reaction. Then, I ran across this meme and everything made sense.

My wife at the time and I were like little kids. Staying with her auntie, we promised me would be back by 9 or so. By 9 or so, we had just made it to the end of the viewing road, which didn’t give you a good view of anything. We looked at each other, our watches, and began the two mile trek through old lava flows to get up close and personal with the lava.

It was incredible.

You can’t get close enough to get hurt, unless you take a running leap. The heat is that intense from a few feet away, but we found very long sticks to play with the gooey fire. Poke it and see if we could alter flows from the slow moving mass of molten rock.

Getting back to the road was difficult. Hiking through old lava flows with no light is not fun, but we finally made it back to the road. We also made it back to where we could get a cell phone signal. My wife had multiple messages from Auntie. She handed the phone to me.

“No way. You call.”

We lied. She said we were at the car and driving back now, begging her to go to bed. Auntie said she’d wait for us. Like two errant kids, we ran the two and half miles back to the car and then I broke some speed limits to get back to the house.

I was completely exhausted when we got back and Auntie had a look on her face. That look. I withered. But it had been worth it.

How many times in your life are you going to get to play with molten lava?

I don’t think Auntie understood. For her, it was just another day in Hawaii.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back to Hawaii, the Big Island or any other island. The disconnection I felt with aloha when I went there solo in 2020 was like a sledge hammer blow to my chest. But the meme will remain one of my favorites.

Today? And tomorrow? I’ll do a little bit of work in preparation for the sales drives on Monday, but I think I need to start writing again. I might be having a book signing at Barnes and Noble if I can get the book published on their site. There are other books and columns I want to work on. I really need to organize some things.

I need to find my perspective again.