Maui has been on my mind daily recently following the tragedy with the fires in Lahaina. As a longtime former resident of the island the horror and sadness of it struck me to the core. I know the town well and even worked there years ago, for a mobile veterinary clinic. How I loved our trips to Lahaina, meeting the nice people, their animals, and going out to eat along Front Street with the doctor each time. Later so many memories were created there in all sorts of daytime activities and glorious evenings along the water. 

So many residents were lost to the fire and homes gone. Pets were lost and sorrow looms everywhere. The entire Hawaiian community is shaken. The fires will always be remembered, and some families are completely gone or will never be the same.

On a lesser scale of hardship, there were countless pieces of beautiful artwork in the local galleries, and losses the artists and store owners incurred were substantial. A disaster like this is hard to reckon with. Placing values on the destruction seems almost impossible.

Now is the time for artist survivors to paint, sing, and write letting this activity help heal their hearts. Not a time for trying to capitalize on loss, but a time to allow the pain to express through creativity. Perhaps some beauty can shine through to bless that part of us as Americans who collectively have lost a little corner of paradise. Locals have lost a part their homeland and community and it is difficult in every way. The rest of us no longer will even have the chance to stroll old Lahaina town as it once was for hundreds of years into the present. 

A treasure is gone. More importantly wonderful souls are no longer with us. As a former Mauian it is a place that still holds home status in my heart. I have family in Maui County. As an artist I decry the damage done, and want to paint as I remember, but am almost too sad to try. May aloha bring beauty to this devastation, as I hear it is already doing, and may our prayers bring restoration to some degree out of the ashes. To anyone who lost a family member, our grief crowds your greater losses. We cry tears with you. 

There really are no words, yet when artists pick up a brush in months and years to come, or when a singer holds his instrument, may some living inspiration help heal these tragic wounds. Then one might still whisper, "Maui No Ka Oi."