Have you ever heard of Opae ula?

I hadn’t until three weeks ago when a friend of mine brought a jar of them to my home. They were a birthday present, a completely unexpected one at that.

He made me close my eyes and go into the living room while he set up this jar of Opae ula. I could hear the tinkle of glass then the soft gurgle of water being poured.

“Don’t look! Don’t look!” he shouted.

“I’m not,” I replied. I wasn’t looking but I didn’t plug my ears. 

“Okay, you can come see.”

I entered the kitchen to see a rather large apothecary jar sitting above the kitchen sink. A stem of black coral surrounded by a shorter piece of white coral sat upon a bed of fine sand inside this jar. The only other adornment was a small sea shell in the shape of a turban. The entire piece was filled with water.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“This is beautiful,” I said.

I gazed at the miniature world of corals for a couple of minutes before I noticed four miniature red darts jump from one side of the jar to the next. I leaned over the sink and took a closer look at this submerged world. Something peculiar had just made itself known and I wanted to know what it was.

“They’re called Opae ula.”

“Tiny red shrimp!” I exclaimed. “If I hadn’t taken a closer look I would have thought they were sea monkies.”

“They live in the shallow pools of water formed by cooled lava. All they need to eat is the algae that blooms inside the jar, but you can feed them these pellets if you want. The water is half saline so when it evaporates add only distilled water to the jar.”

Thus began my fascination with these little red shrimp, no bigger than the tip of a pencil, that swim about an apothecary jar, cleaning the algae from the coral. This is one of the most unique gifts I have ever received for my birthday.

There are times in our life when friends surprise us in ways we never imagined. All surprises have short lives, but a few have longer ones. They knead our curiosity and our inspiration. I have one of these surprises with a long life. It sits above my kitchen sink, inspiring me every day.