Surviving Drama

The Spin Cycle topic this week is drama.

I’ve got drama.

I have Daughter, who will be turning 21 next week, who is a drama kid. In the literal sense. Plays, musicals. All that jazz. In her high school drama program they had fundraising T-shirts that had "Got Drama?" on the front. Perhaps I should not have made fun of the shirts...

I’ve got unbloggable dramas. You folks who have been around for more than 10 months might remember the old Pseudo, before the unbloggable.

I teach teenagers. So I am around drama on a daily basis.

Currently, I have an 83 year old mother who has mental health problems, who needs (for over two years) to go into assisted living. Who is causing all kinds of dramas with her children and grandchildren as she tries to pit them against each other. My mother thrives on drama.

Me? Not so much.

It makes me want to buy a one way ticket on a train and do a Jack Kerouac cross country all by my lonesome skedaddle.

But the theme in my life of late appears to be how to pick up the broken pieces and have faith they will be put back together in a mosaic stronger than that which came before.

So, while I take one day at a time, remembering to breathe deeply and notice the beauty that still surrounds me, I find myself gardening. Kind of sort of. It’s a new hobby.

The house we moved to has a HUGE yard. There is a cemented in creek behind the house that used to be a real one, evidenced by the rocky yard. There is an embankment. Try and plant something in this area and you will be cursing at the 235 rocks you come across.

So, while hubs and I are at the beach one day I ask about the shrubbery thriving in the sand. Along the rocky shoreline.



He tells me it is called Naupaka. I figure if it can grow in the rocks and the sand along the coast, perhaps it can grow in my yard. So I bring back some cuttings.

Then, as happens, I start to notice it everywhere. It’s a common hedge shrub in this neighborhood.

I’m very excited about my Naupaka embankment. As I water it and cheer for it to root, it symbolizes the beauty that can emerge even from the toughest predicaments.


When I researched Naupaka, I came upon its legend.

The Legend of Naupaka

It is said that two lovers, greatly devoted to each other, came to the attention of the Goddess Pele. Pele found the young man desirable and appeared before him as a beautiful stranger. But no matter what Pele did, the lovers remained devoted to each other.

Angered, Pele chased the young man into the mountains, throwing molten lava at him. Pele's sisters witnessed this and to save the young man from a certain death they changed him into the mountain Naupaka.

Pele immediately went after the young woman and chased her towards the sea - but again Pele's sisters stepped in and changed the young lover into beach Naupaka.

It is said that if the mountain Naupaka and beach Naupaka flowers are reunited, the two young lovers will be together again.

The half flower representing the separated lovers...

For more spins on drama, head on over to Sprite's Keeper.