Kaua'i is a winterless paradise of green, lavender, surreal sunrises and seductive sunsets.

It is also a place of great mystery and cultural depth.

It is apparent Hawai'i is connected to something unseen.

The following — a thought-provoking meeting between a visitor to the island and a little local boy — is about Hawai'i's beauty and what you do for others.

During my first trip to Kaua'i, I stayed at Pono Kai Resort. Each evening I would walk down to a nearby two-lane bridge spanning a river and gaze into the sky, look down at the water, and then far out to sea. It was simply beautiful.

A boy, who appeared to be about 10 years old, would come about the same time each day, near sundown. He would sit on the bank below the bridge. He appeared to be talking into the wind.

On the fifth day, the boy approached me.

"I can swim across," he said.

Without warning a cogent wind swept the bridge. It was so strong it pushed me forward.

"Where did that come from?" I asked aloud.

"From God, said the little boy instantly. "God is awesome."

"I can swim across," he said once more.

"Isn't the river very dangerous?" I said.

He laughed.

"Yes it is dangerous, but it is not too dangerous for me. I swim across all the time, but only in front of strangers," he said.

"Why do you swim only in front of strangers?" I asked.

"Because there is a time for everything," the boy said with surprising authority.

In the time its takes to draw a breath, he leapt, and instantly disappeared into the brackish foreboding current.

He was gone in a flash like a fish. I waited for the boy to surface. Nearly a minute ticked away.

I raced along the bridge. Frantically I looked over one side and then the other. The channel was murky, the water almost black and impossible to see into.

I turned and ran for the Pono Kai.

Without warning another cogent wind suddenly came up. It was so strong it nearly stopped me. In that moment — in the middle of my own darkness, in the twilight, of the evening and in fear — I looked back.

And behold, I saw the boy upon the opposite shore. He was standing, waving to me.

He had swum across the river. He was standing upon the fertile ground of his faith, and I was thick with emotion.

I had discovered my Hawai'i. It is what you do for others, connecting to something unseen and teaching a stranger something outside-the-box of his world.