Sand Between Your Toes

I lived on the island of Kauai from age 22-26. I refer to that season of my life as “my graduate work”. Those were the years that I came into my own. I had a chance to design my life without expectations of anyone who knew me. This was also before I inherited anything from my family. To be fair, my parents had put me through college, I had no debt and if I ever was in a tight situation, I knew I could ask for help. Aside from that, I made my own money, paid my own rent, and worked jobs that appealed to me. This is probably hard to believe, but the most I ever made in a month during my time on Kauai was $1,600. And that month I thought I was rolling in cash! To an outsider, I was pretty broke, but I loved the life I was living.

During those years in Hawaii, living a good life had nothing to do with my net worth. I remember a phone conversation I had with my dad one day from the park across the street from the tiny ADU I lived in with a roommate. I was telling my dad about my friend, Iolani, who sat at the beach in the evenings and played his ukulele. My dad’s response stuck with me. “What more could you ask for?” he said, “Sand between your toes, music in your ears, and friends to share it with.”

At that point, money had complicated my dad’s life. He’d often say, in regards to money, “Too much or too little, they’re both problematic.” He understood that money wasn’t what gave his life value. Sitting on top of a mountain did. Sweeping the barn clean did. Riding the horses through the woods to the sunlit meadow, that is what made his life rich.

This lesson is one I keep referring back to in my own life. As the numbers in the accounts ebb and flow and the rental units vacate and fill and my stress levels rise and fall, I remember what my dad taught me about the true value of life… it’s about the sand between your toes, the music in your ears and the people by your side.