Lethal, crippling COVID-19; presidential-congressional chaos; George Floyd’s “I can’t breathe” Black Lives Matter movement; dozens of bankrupt Maui businesses: they were quakes that left a tragic tsunami of sorrow and despair in our island, state, nation and world.

This island’s winds of drastic change were spiritual, mental and physical.

We fought back. We prayed and meditated. We boarded our stores with plywood. We held on for dear life. We learned, and hopefully practiced, a deeper aloha for one another and ourselves.

The year 2020 will be talked about for decades, if not centuries. Today’s children, when they are old, will reminisce about these days to their grandchildren.

There were many stories about heartaches and tears on Maui during 2020 that will remain unwritten and anonymous. Aloha had to be resuscitated because most of us, at first, were using the wrong prescriptions. I still wonder at times.

The “phoenix of hope and love” is slowly rising from the ashes of evil.

Steve Hildebrand

Lahaina