I love to travel with my son.  This past spring we took a vacation to Maui.  We love it there.  Many days we found ourselves on a secluded beach, tucked away.  

To get to the beach we followed a path that tells me a little story about life, being chicken, and finding paradise.  Let me share it with you, these pictures have been on my phone for awhile.

To find the beach, you venture off of the main roads.  You drive down a residential street where there are a few parking spots on the side of the road.  From the street and parking, you have no view of the perfect beach hidden away.  This is true about life too.  How often is a paradise calling us, but from where we are today, we have no idea about how good it could get if we move towards it.

As you get out of the car you are met by chickens and roosters.  No ugly chickens here, these are gorgeous birds.  They greet you as you make your way towards the path.  Like life, we need to embrace our inner-chicken and walk towards the unknown that is calling us.

This path to paradise is hard to find, grown over, and narrow.  The grass is tall.  But something tells you to step out on it, to follow it.

Next, the path begins to clear.  There are signs on trees that say no trespassing, don’t wander off the path.  The chickens follow you.  Like life, you may feel a little chicken searching for a paradise when there are warning signs that cause you to feel fear, doubt, worry or concern.  You must move forward despite the fear, find your bravery and courage.

You keep on.  The path gets gnarly and twisted with brush.  How can there be a beach on this path?  Where is it?  Like life, the path is often gnarly just before reaching your paradise.  Our ego confuses us.  Is this where we turn around?  Is our inner chicken saying the brush and obstacles are too difficult to pass?  This may be where we face disappointments, rejection, roadblocks, the ego says it’s too difficult.  But we ask, is my heart truly committed to finding paradise?

Then the path clears.  You hear the call.  It’s steps away.  You see it.

You keep walking forward…you’ve trusted your bravery, courage, and perseverance to keep moving in the direction of your heart.  Then, it appears…you’ve found it, paradise!

Our walk to the beach…like our journeys to paradise in life…

• May we all step out on our paths to paradise
• May we keep on, even though the path may be overgrown and hard to find
• May we silence our inner chickens and fears, and find our bravery and courage
• May we listen to the call even when it is gnarly and when we are encountering obstacles
• May we trust our hearts to follow the call, to discover our paradise

Aloha (definition: love, peace, and compassion) my friends,

Jill

P. S. I’d love to help you silence your inner chicken, and follow that call. Join me for the Dare to Dream Workshop on 11/2 from 9:30 – 11:30. All the details can be found here: https://jilldianesaunders.com/event/dare-to-dream/, only a few seats left!