As a seasoned traveler, primary care provider, and yoga instructor, I can say that Waipi’o Valley has an undeniable energetic vibration that is healing to the cellular level like no other place I’ve experienced before. Meditating, swimming, running, stretching, and playing on Waipi’o’s black sandy beach with my dog renews my spirit. This energetic reset allows me to emerge restored and helps me to give to and hold space for others in my professional and personal life as well as my community. I believe we can find a middle way in which we can preserve this special aina.

Waipi’o for my ohana is a place to connect with the ocean, the land, and our sense of place. It provides us a way to exercise, reset, and teach our son about currents, tides, habitats, and history. I guess we all didn’t realize just how important it was for our mental and physical well-being until this closure. We had always assumed that our rights to access the coast were not something that could just be taken away overnight.

Waipiʻo is important to me in so many ways, but at the top of the list, as an educational resource for raising my son.