Day 30: Five Senses in Manoa Valley. (J)

 -----------------------------------------

After my internship some days, I head to Starbucks to get a little reading done.  Walking home from there around 7 or so, I stopped for a moment as I felt the playful breeze swirl around me and dry the beads of sweat that had formed on my neck on this seasonably warm night.  I listened, and heard the myriad songs of crickets and night birds, the soft, friendly chatter of a family sitting around a small backyard grill and, in the distance, the small black pug on the corner's daily warning bark reminding me that I was close to home.  I took a deep breath, and felt the clean, revitalizing forest air of a recent light rain fill my lungs.  I looked around, and saw lush green life in every glance, the glittering firefly lights of homes begin to slowly flicker to life as greeting to the approaching evening and I saw my home, for now.  My home.  
-----------------------------------------
This place fills you.  Alone, standing with backpack on shoulders and flip flops on the grass, Manoa Valley filled me.  With so much abundant nature embracing you, so few cars and horns zipping around and your mind clear of the day's onslaught of stresses, it just feels like your senses are so much more attuned to everything happening around you.  You feel strangely at peace, and you can then feel everything else.
-----------------------------------------
Oh, what about taste, you ask?  Did I forget about that?  Nope.  As I shake my head slightly out of its reverie and begin to walk again, I smile, knowing that my housemate's recently cooked corn and ham chowder and a tall can of Guinness patiently wait for me at home.  Although not native to Manoa Valley, chowder and Guiness also fill me just as well...