🌿 Growing Gratitude: How My Farm, Family, and Ikigai Keep Me Rooted

Some mornings I wake up to the sound of the wind moving through the mango trees, the gentle shuffle of sheep in the pasture, and the first light spilling across our ʻulu trees. It’s in those moments — before the rush of harvest or the bustle of market day — that gratitude feels like the very air I’m breathing.

I haven’t always been this grounded. I’ve lived through loss that took my breath away, detours I never expected, and seasons when purpose felt like a puzzle with missing pieces. But over time, through tending plants, cooking meals, and nurturing connections, I’ve begun to uncover what the Japanese call Ikigai — the sweet spot where what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what sustains you all meet.

For me, that looks like:

• Growing tropical fruit and medicinal plants on our 12-acre farm in Hāna 🌱

• Cooking nourishing food that blends Hawaiian ingredients with Spanish traditions 🥘

• Sharing the abundance at our farmers market table each Friday 🍍

• Teaching, creating, and telling stories that honor culture, family, and the land 📖

Gratitude is what stitches these pieces together. Without it, farming could feel like just hard work, cooking like just a chore, and storytelling like just a hobby. But with it, every harvest feels like a gift, every meal a celebration, every connection a thread in the larger fabric of life.

Today I’m grateful for:

• The resilience of the ʻāina (land) that continues to feed and teach me

• My family, who walk beside me in both joy and grief

• The community who chooses local, fresh, and handmade

• The small, quiet moments — a tomato flower swaying in the breeze, the smell of fresh breadfruit roasting, the laughter of my children

Gratitude doesn’t erase challenges. But it shifts the view — turning what’s “enough” into “abundance” and what’s “ordinary” into “magic.”

So I’m tending both my garden and my heart today, trusting that both will bear fruit in their own time. 🌺 💖 Please share what you are grateful for in your life 💕