Locked Gates

We picked up some Thai food Wednesday night after getting back from the beach.  Sunset is pretty regular here, around 6:50 or so, and it's dark by the time we get back to Kihei from Little Beach.  The food was excellent.  We sat down on the couch, ate a couple of generous helpings, turned on the TV, then promptly dozed off.  For the first time since we've been here, however, it was Mark who dozed off, not me. :)

We had experienced a first that morning:  when we got to the entrance of the parking lot for Big Beach, the gate was closed and locked.  Someone had obviously overslept, as it was 8:00, and the gates open at 7:00.

Rather than sit behind several other cars that were parked in front of the gate ahead of us, we decided to drive on down Makena Road - something we had never done.  I was amazed by what I saw.  The road very quickly changed into a narrow lane, much as I imagine one would expect to see in Cornwall, or like some that one sees in some parts of West Vancouver, B.C. between Lighthouse Park and Horseshoe Bay.

There were compounds, flowers tumbling over the tops of the lava rock walls that ran inches from the side of the road.  Estates on the landward side, overlooking the ocean.  Small coves such as Pa'aho Beach at Secret Cove, pictured in the lead photo.  (One has to be observant, or one will miss it, thus remaining a secret.)

Entrance to the beach at Secret Cove

The beauty of Ahihi Bay, the road being squished into almost a path between the water and the estates on the other side of the road.

Then one comes to the lava field on Cap Kina'u which were created a couple of hundred years or so ago.

All of this was unknown to me, but lay just down the road from the turnoff to the parking lot at Big Beach.  We turned around in the middle of the lava field and headed back.  The gate was by then unlocked and we went on with our day.

As we walked to Little Beach, I thought about the lesson that morning's experience had brought to mind.  How many people go through life, mechanically turning into the parking lot,s o to speak, never looking to see what is beyond the next rise or curve in the road?  Until, that is, they arrive one morning and find the gate locked and are forced to make a choice between (a) simply turning the car's engine off and waiting for someone to unlock the gate, or (b) taking advantage of the jarring change in circumstances to explore what lies down the road from the locked gate.

As these thoughts flitted through my mind, I thought of the circumstances surrounding my coming out, now over 18 months ago.  For years, almost all my life really, I'd been metaphorically turning into the parking lot.  But then one day, it was as though someone had swung the gate closed and locked it.  I had a choice between (a) sitting there and waiting for someone to unlock and open the gate, and (b) driving on down the road to see what was there.  I chose the latter, and that has made all the difference.