The Fruit of Following Your Passion

by Ioana Gheorghiu (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find USA

When paradise calls, it’s difficult not to answer. Kauai, an island that is part of the Hawaiian archipelago, had been calling me for months. I concluded that perhaps she was calling me to move there and finally start building my vision: a passion retreat center with a vegan cafe. Kenton, my partner, had been collecting local recipes and ingredients from all the countries we have traveled to in order to add them to our cafe menu. In my mind, Kauai was going to be the perfect place for this project that combines my passion for travel, island life, rich culture, and healthy lifestyle. When we finally stepped out of the plane and spilled our bodies into the embrace of the island, her beauty awed us into silence. The rugged peaks of the Na’pali coast, the lingering vines of the forest, and even her humid breath was enough to make us feel like this was home. That same afternoon, we went foraging for fruits, led by my partner’s keen sense for local ingredients and their possibilities. His excitement led him to a ripe breadfruit, or ulu in Hawaiian, and he developed a delicious recipe for vegan “pulled pork”. Our lunches for the next two weeks consisted of vegan pulled pork sandwiches and as many avocados as we could eat. To our surprise, over the next few days, we started feeling less and less like this was the place for our center. The local community didn’t feel cohesive and even though Kauai is a small island, places felt far apart from each other. Although this was a big curveball in our plans, we decided we would continue to enjoy our ocean dips and jungle adventures. Little did we know that the next curveball would really have us spinning. One late evening, as we were driving north along the main highway, we spotted a shadow in the road that all cars were carefully swerving around. At first, we thought it was a hog. As we got closer, we saw a stray dog licking juice off the pavement. Kenton stopped the car, I ran out and coaxed this small chocolate lab away from danger. She was scared but friendly. In fact, she was so friendly that when Kenton parked the car and came over, she jumped in his lap and licked his cheek. Her nails were so long that they had curled under her paws and her ribs and hip bones echoed the rugged peaks of the island. She was starving. We decided to feed her and take her to the place we were staying at until we could bring her to the Humane Society the next day. She was not microchipped and nobody came to claim her. The Humane Society said she was most likely an abandoned hunting dog — nothing unusual for Kauai. We fostered her for 3 days. As our trip was coming to an end, we knew we had to give her up. We pondered taking her with us but we already had two dogs at home — a third would be too much. Before packing her in the car for our final drive, I turned to her and asked, “Do you want to come home with us?” and as she raised her front feet to paw me, she made a scratch into my left arm. To my surprise, it resembled the form of the letter “Y”. The answer was, most obviously, “Yes!” Our hearts agreed. We took care of her paperwork and her plane ticket the same day. In honor of living a passionate life, ready for whatever life throws at us, we named her Lilikoi, which means passionfruit in Hawaiian. And although our center idea didn’t bear fruit in Kauai, a new addition to our family did. Lilikoi loves her new home and blesses us with her love and playful curiosity. We didn’t expect to find her, but somehow, she found us. Every day, she reminds us to stay true to our passions, whatever form they decide to take. The key ingredient to life that we took away from this trip was this: wherever our passions will lead us next, the answer will always be a resounding “Yes!”