How Maui Gave Us More Than Just a Vacation

Up for a Hawaii story?

If you’ve read Miles with Maximus, you met Chewy. A rescued King Charles Spaniel/Chihuahua Mix that introduced himself to us in 2021. Chewy past in 2023, but he still with us. He even travels with us.

What does this have to do with our recent Hawaii trip?

On Maui, I felt a little dip in my joy. This was surprising, because I was in the most beautiful scenery, a welcome opposition to the wintry cold back home. (It’s been busy at home, and I was concerned about taking this last minute trip… and I probably lacked sleep) I felt it come on during the flight, but I ignored it and dove into a book I’ve been reading. I thought a second coffee might help, but as I started unpacking, Chewy briefly came to mind. I smiled… “he would love it here,” I thought. Immediately followed by a vision of Maximus and Samson in Hawaiian shirts “They would own this resort,” I told BP. Indeed.

I dressed in my happy colors, and put a flower in my hair, and walked out of our hotel room with a guy eagerly awaiting to show me around the place. (If you know BP, well, you just know.)

We are scenery chasers, adventure seekers, and we are genuinely interested in (most) people. We obviously struck up conversations with our bartenders/waitstaff right away. We talked away any somber feeling that was looming inside me. I recall looking at the sunset, thinking “oh we should be in bed by now,” and about how magical God and God’s creation is.

I thought about how our greatest wealth is how well we are living the current moment. Where are our thoughts, how are we feeling, who are we with? Mostly, I thought about how those who can’t be with us are really never gone either.

I felt a lift of my spirit and a smile land on my face. Gone were all the thoughts of being behind at home or with work due to this random trip. Gone was any heaviness of worry or fret. I stopped thinking about how disheveled my hair looked.

We got up to leave and shook the hand of our waiter. “Thanks man! Barnes & Lacey,” I heard my husband say…

“Chewy,” the waiter said. “Thanks for coming in.”

We walked back to our hotel room, passing a red Jeep with a bunch of Hawaiian flower stickers on it—license plate: CHEWY. We smiled at each other.