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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
 Posted - 09/16/2007 : 02:40:08 AM
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This book was written by Cloudia Charters. It is a story of a Philadelphia born haole wahine who came to Hawai`i looking for the answers to many of life's mysteries. She lived mauka on the Big Island for a while until she felt closed in by the sameness of each day. She worked serving drinks and dancing in a topless bar in Waikiki, then took up driving a cab all around O`ahu. I think her travels around the island were metaphorical for her continuing search into the meaning of life. She fell deeply in love with the island and its "chop suey" mix of people. She developed her aloha and learned many lessons from those who were happy to share their aloha and mana`o as free gifts, no strings attached.
Please let me share a passage of this book with you:
"And so I was in extremis, first one extreme (anxiety and frustration) then the other: simple, overwhelming appreciation for the faithful Ko`olau, the enticing smells of flowers, exotic foods, and perfume, and especially appreciation for this unique, passively defiant, chop suey local culture of golden underdogs. All the neighborhoods, small kid times, and usta to be's enchanted me. Then just as quickly, I'd be reminded that they were somebody else's, not mine.
Still yet, everyday, stuck in traffic...a certain Hawaiian song might come over the radio: groups like Olomana, Hui `Ohana and the ethereal falsetto singing of Dennis Pavao, could still arouse that worn spirit that I hardly ever remembered that I still possessed. Hawaiian music is surely a gift to the world, both medicine and teacher. The flowing Hawaiian words address the heart directly. The Brothers Cazimero singing Ka`ena, or Hi`ilawe by 'Pop's' Pahinui, would transport me back to Here and Now to the heartbreaking beauty of This Moment, and then I'd just 'know' that Hawai`i and I had a rendesvous. I had learned that it is a privilege to witness hula. Now I realized that Hawaiian music is probably what angels listen to at home..."
This book is full of many lessons that she learned about aloha:
"Everywhere you go, you are either spreading Aloha or you are not. You carry a lot of Mana with you always. Gotta realize that and use it for your good, and everyone else's. It's in all the little things, not some big gesture on a special occasion."
"All da connections already stay between everyone. Come aware of that. Aloha means we are in the presence of the breath of Life. That is the same for every person alive."
http://www.amazon.com/ALOHA-Where-You-Like-Satisfaction/dp/1598006495
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Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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