Ganesh has always been a sort of caretaker, guide and protector for the women of my family–Mommy, Marisa and me. Mostly, He is energetically attracted to Mommy, but He definitely does His part to take care of her children.

While Leah and family were visiting with us last year, we had an interesting conversation with one of Kekoa’s aunts. With no prompting and completely unrelated to any conversation we were having, his aunt turned to me and asked if I’d ever been to the Hindu Monastery on Kauai.

She went on to describe the place, specifically noting that there was a great statue of Nandi, a powerful statue of Siva, a very handsome statue of Ganesh and some statue of “another guy whose name I can’t remember.” She went on and on about how handsome Ganesh was, and Leah, Lahi, Kekoa and I smiled at each other knowingly that Ganesh was the one speaking through her — encouraging me to go to visit Him on Kauai. It turns out that the “other guy” she spoke of was Ganesh’s brother, Kartikeya.

It seemed just like Ganesh to make fun of His brother and, instead, emphasize His own handsomeness.

I assured Kekoa’s aunty that I’d visit the Hindu Monastery some day, and that I’d be sure to attend the morning Puja.

It took me a while, over a year, before I finally made it to Kauai — but Kekoa and I took a weekend trip in March of this year with the intent that we’d go to the Monastery early in the trip. We anticipated that I might need some time to accomplish some tasks that Ganesh, or his father, Siva, would ask of me, and then we’d spend the rest of the time enjoying each other and soaking in the sun and the energy of the oldest inhabited island.

Kekoa and I like to accept road maps when they’re offered to us, and look them over together to get the “lay of the land,” even though like any good Gen-Xer and Xennial (that microgeneration between Gen-X and Millennials), we use our phones’ GPS to get anywhere. So, when the flight attendant offered up driving maps of Kauai, we excitedly accepted and began our traditional perusal. After locating where we’d be staying, where we want to go hiking, and where some of his family lives, I pointed out Kuamo‘o Road and said that at some time during our trip, I wanted to go on that road. I assumed it’s because the word mo‘o is a part of it; mo‘o are Hawaii’s dragons and they definitely play a role in my life. I haven’t written, yet, about Hawaiian dragons, but you can read about my experience with New Zealand’s dragons: Tuatara.

So anyway, we decide to go to breakfast and then go to the Monastery on day 1, to allow me maximum days to accomplish any tasks. I choose to eat vegetarian because I hear Ganesh in my head telling me so, change into a beautiful shalwar kameez that Lyndsey let me borrow, and follow GPS instructions to the Monastery. GPS takes us up a windy road in the mountains and leads us to… a private dirt road that has been chained off. Road closed. We start to backtrack and have GPS recalculate as we get closer to civilization; it takes us in the clear opposite direction we were going and lo and behold? Kuamo‘o Road. It dawns on me that the world was telling me to take Kuamo‘o Road to get to the Monastery since the other road was closed; alas, I didn’t pick up on that in time.

We eventually make it to the Monastery. It’s fucking gorgeous. Highly recommend anyone headed to Kauai to attend a morning Puja at the Monastery, even if you’re not Hindu, even if you’re not into spiritual stuff; from a cultural perspective and from a scenery perspective, it’s simply amazing.

We sit through the various phases of the Puja. Super cool and very different than anything I’d ever seen. I sat in front of Kartikeya and Siva; the statue of Ganesh was on the opposite side of the room.

A lot of different things happened as we take in the ceremony and the culture when I start receiving messages. Here’s what I texted Leah about the messages:

This messaging that Siva sends about respecting myself as a spiritual being is an important one, but I didn’t realize how important at the time. This comes into play in later journal entries.

No further tasks were assigned to me, just whatever is noted above. I had come to Kauai not to visit Ganesh, but to meet Siva and come under his care and guidance.

Om nama Sivaya.

Originally written on June 15, 2017.