“Are you looking for me? 
I am in the next seat.
My shoulder is against yours.
When you really look for me, 
you will see me instantly —
you will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? 
He is the breath inside the breath.” 

― Kabir

Find a quiet spot and be a hermit for one quarter of an hour everyday. Eventually, by degrees, you will enter the vast space of who you actually are. 

Old churches like the Keawala'i Church in Maui can be a lovely place to contemplate the purpose of life. 

Founded in 1832, the Keawala’i Congregational Church is one of the oldest churches on Maui. The lava stone structure that still stands was built in 1855 using a mortar made of coral. It replaced the original house of worship made of pili grass. Over the years the three-foot-thick walls have been repaired and the wooden roof and bell tower replaced, but the bones of the 1855 church remain.

Sometimes referred to locally as “the old stone church,” the Keawala’i Congregational Church is located on a small sandy cove between Makena Landing and Maluaka Beach about six miles south of Maui Vista. 

If the doors are open, you can look inside at the simple handsome interior. Hymnals are provided in both English and Hawaiian and the church owns an early 19th century bible written in Hawaiian. Two services are held each Sunday – one in Hawaiian.

The church’s small graveyard by the sea is worth a visit. It has old and newer headstones.

The Emily Dahl Foundation