1991, USN housing on Middle Loch of Pearl Harbor, 4 years minimum before transfer, 20 yards from and 10 ft above the waterline. A beautiful setting with a view, but the mangroves completely hid the water. After several months with a pick ax and other tools, I had cleared the coast line, found a bail of newspapers, 3' chunk of Rock maple, 27 slippers (no matches) bicycle frame, and enough large rocks to make a tide walk out from the shoreline, that my little kids could use to enter the habitat of crabs, sea slugs, and starfish.

As I chopped, carted, and cleaned a neglected place that nature had reclaimed, I learned that life maintenance, relationships, take the same diligence and sometimes a big cleaning. A single floating mangrove pod allowed to take root turns into a near impenetrable barrier in a few years.