"The River Is Deep"

A L O H A

Welcome to a Lazy Sunday in Honolulu

F R I E N D !

click on photos, Frodo

He says that the river is deep,

never writes his poetry down.

But he carried moldy canvas

stuffed with type-written pages

across decades - and continents.

And so it has been,

deep that is.

And should it flow

another continent or two,

or just a handful of tomorrows,

the river has been deep,

sweet & daily,

with sparkles of eternity.

Our river is deep

indeed.

Thanks for visiting!

ALOHA, cloudia

Saturday Friends

ALOHA

Saturday Friend!

click on photos for magic

Friends Like to Gather at Day's End. . .

"As I make my slow pilgrimage through the world,

a certain sense of beautiful mystery seems to gather and grow."

A. C. Benson

Friendly Competitors?

"Whenever a friend suceeds, a little something in me dies."
Gore Vidal

Birds of a Feather or

"I don't care if someone is blue, orange, yellow or purple..."

"The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship."
William Blake

Finn is a true friend.

Sure he is highly trained,

but everyone is just more relaxed when he's around.

He plays when his human companions are playful,

And he is quiet, and a good listener, when they're pensive.

Finn is the first service dog assigned to help recuperating Marines.

Everyone agrees that he boosts their morale

at the Wounded Warrior Barracks.

True Friends Require No Words:

Thank YOU

for being a Friend,

ALOHA, cloudia

Aloha Friday

It's ALOHA Friday!

Welcome Friend

click on photos to inspect deeply

Every Sparrow. . .

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.”
Henry David Thoreau

Torch Eternal


“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it onto future generations.”
George Bernard Shaw




Kolea in the Sun



"Never part without loving words to think of during your absence.

It may be that you will not meet again in life."

Jean Paul Richter

Moon & Mist




"Writing well mean never having to say, 'I guess you had to be there.' "
Jef Mallett




Years ago,
I used to read the Honolulu obituaries in my taxi.
Back then, every other deceased was foreign born:
China, Japan, Korea, Azores, Philippines.
Their brief stories spoke volumes about Hawaii,
what we're all about,
and how we got this way.








Later,
many obituaries mentioned birth
in places that no longer exist:
"Camp Number 7, Ewa Plantation"
That was the plantation-born generation.
What a tale those lives could tell!








Recently, I noticed an obit
for an old local woman born in China.
There was to be a Taoist Funeral,
so I went to pay my respects.
Not just to the lady and her family,
but to an entire generation.









And I longed to see, hear, and smell
a Taoist Funeral.











For some reason
I have always gravitated to things
Chinoise.
When I was a child,
there was actually a pretty standard Halloween costume:
"Chinese Person"
and I clamored to wear it
for many years.









Imagine!
An ethnicity as a Halloween costume!
But I was just a kid
and I wanted to be
Chinese.










When I got to Diamond Head Memorial Park
the viewing was taking place,
as was an outdoor gathering
of seemingly casual folks eating Dim Sum,
my favourite brunch.










I sat with some older women
who welcomed me simply.
I explained that I wanted to attend a Taoist Funeral,
and to honor the deceased, family, and generation.









They insisted that I eat.
Everything about the Chinese seems eminently sensible to me.
The ladies warmed up and talk-storied with me,
as local people will do.
I wasn't an outsider you see - being local.









One new friend said that she was glad that her ancestors
had settled in Hawaii, not San Francisco
(my other favorite town).
"There it was too ghettoized for us. Here we mix and move away from Chinatown. San Francisco too closed!"








We all agreed:
"Lucky we live Hawaii."









Then they started telling me about Hawaii Chinese funeral customs that they remembered growing up.
They spoke of keeping the deceased in the home overnight,
illegal now,
of burlap clothes,
and hired wailing mourners
making a racket in the house,
and parading down the (Honolulu) street.












These customs are growing attenuated today,
but for this honored decedent
there would be ancient ceremony,
the burning of spirit money,
and attendance by cardboard servants.










"Lots of people became Christian over here,"
my new friend explained.
Her own Goong Goong (grandmother)
had had the gift of physiognomy,
she read the truth in people's faces,
but gave it up
after Christian prayers had cured a serious illness.
Such was the tendency and pressure of those days.









The Benevolent Societies remain,
though less vital generation to generation.
And Chinatown is busy with new immigrants
from Southeast Asia, Oceania
and elsewhere.










But this family was holding a traditional funeral
to honor a woman born in the old country.
I didn't feel right taking pictures,
so my words will have to do.












The family stood attentively in two rows
facing the coffin, regalia,
and the priest with his chanting
and implements.












Chanting was punctuated by the preparation of tea.
The acolyte told the family
when to drink,
when to bow.
The tea was offered to the woman's spirit
and poured into an urn
of sand.









The acolyte also took articles right outside the chapel
to burn.
Cardboard servants-
a male and female-
were held like puppets,
raised up, and
bowed in unison to the deceased.
All very matter of fact,
all as the lady would have wanted it.











At last, Chinese music,
strings and cymbals,
was played
to my delight.











All the while,
most attendees
sat outside
eating Dim Sum
and talking.










I still have the ladies obit
and take it out
to pay her my respects.










Thank you for having me to your
last Honolulu party.











The food was delicious,
the conversation good,
your incense and music beguiled me.










Go with our respectful
gratitude.









A L O H A! cloudia

Come to My Windows

ALOHA

Welcome to Thursday in Honolulu

click on windows to enter therein My computer is my window on the world,

the WHOLE world.

"The Internet is becoming the town square

for the global village of tomorrow."

"People everywhere love Windows."

Sometimes it's just plain fun, like when I visit YOUR blog!

"I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid,
and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact
that I had a chance to read a lot."

When everything is working right,
it's a beautiful thing!

"As we look ahead into the next century,

leaders will be those who empower others."
All Quotes Today:

Bill Gates





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I bought my first laptop 10 years ago.
And I used it for the entire ten years;
Windows ME operating system and all!




When it was on it's last legs I anguished over it's replacement.
Some swear by APPLE. I've been a PC and learned it's Window ways, but I was willing to change for the right reasons.



I went back and forth.



Ultimately, I bought another Dell Inspirion 15
with the much heralded
WINDOWS 7.




This was a great decision!
Yes, I'm one of those people that the ad campaign is about:
I'm ecstatic about this dual core beauty
and after 3 weeks,

WINDOWS 7 has been nothing but a joy.



It has exceeded my expectations -

and I don't like change where my tools are concerned.

It takes too much energy from my creativity.
I just want things to work,
and Windows7 really does.
It's elegant.




So if it's time, treat yourself.
If you spend hours of your life on-line like I do,
it will be just like getting a new and better body.
I'm BEAUTIFUL again!

Having been involved in public health, I know well
how much basic good the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
is doing thoughout the world
and here in
America.


Windows it is!




I purchased at Best Buy and had a good experience.
The person who helped me, Richard, was totally cool.
As a stingy tightwad, I mean careful spender,
I can tell you that it is
Very Worth It
to get a machine that they have
optimized.


So, come to my windows.
Then you can enjoy your visits here to Hawaii
even MORE!


ALOHA, Friend! cloudia

Eleven Eleven

A L O H A

Friends!

Welcome to 11/11

Veteran's Day Here In Hawaii

click on photos for strategic enlargement

Look over there!

It's the USS Reagan,

spending a few days in Pearl Harbor.




"The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war."

Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit



"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask,

"Mother, what was war?"

Eve Merriam

Hard to describe how BIG it is.
Those are the tops of trucks (lorries) in front.
Dozens of aircraft crowd the flight deck.





"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers."
José Narosky

It looms over nearby buildings.











"To be a patriot is to [sometimes] have a lovers' quarrel

with your country."

-Wm. Sloane Coffin

<>< <> ><>

I never had much awareness of the military growing up.

Sure dad, and all the men of my childhood, had won WWII

along with our allies,

but the military was not a family tradition,

or a career path that would have appealed to me.

Besides, my two childhood heroes were Martin Luther King,

and Leonardo DaVinci. Leonardo said that if you were a lover of peace, you should have brilliant machines to defend that peace.

I loved his siege engine drawings, and I still adore high-tech war birds when they roar by at tree top level for some event, like today's "missing man" flyover . . . But I digress. . .

Here in Hawaii, the military is a significant presence.

From Pearl Harbor, where WWII began for the USA,

to the Barking Sands of Kauai where missiles are launched, tracked, brought down, to Schofield Barracks where "From Here to Eternity" was lived and filmed, and on to the giant veterans' cemetery at Punchbowl where Barack Obama's grandfather lies,

Hawaii is a place where you experience the military up close.

I even wrote a poem about the young service men & women who pass through Waikiki on their way to and from more dangerous places:

These Are The Boys


These are the boys who surf the waves
Or try to
Who cruise Waikiki
With radios thumping loud
Drunken, polite
Away from home for the first time
Supremely confident in youth
And in America.
These are the boys
Who go to the wars
Who go to the wars
And Die.

As you can tell, I have very mixed feelings about all of this.

I honor those who put their lives on the line to defend homes, strangers, and high ideals. But I know that most often aggression could be avoided, and that those who "choose" diplomacy by other means

are often wilfully blind to the consequences, and to other solutions. Nonetheless, I do honor the individual who gives up their personal freedom to obey and to serve. I could never do it.

Here in Hawaii we walk among a shrinking number of aging, local Japanese boys who served in the most decorated unit of WWII;

they were the 442 "Go For Broke" boys who left family and friends in internment camps to fight fascism overseas, and to ultimately be the ones who shot the lock off the gates of Auschwitz.

"You fought two enemies, the Nazis, and prejudice. And you have won," President Harry Truman said of them.

Our Senator Dan Innouye is one of them.

Heleft his arm in France, but continues to serve Hawaii

and the nation without it.

Of course, it was US Marines off of the USS Boston in Honolulu Harbor who helped insure the overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy and of the internationally recognized nation of Hawaii.

We in Hawaii have a complicated relationship between the islands and people we love, and the USA

that our parents fought and sometimes died for.

It's like being children of a complicated marriage;

we love both of our parents, even if they disagree from time to time.

The formal apology by Bill Clinton's administration was a good step,

but only a step in resolving this relationship. . .

Yes, the military holds a lot of Hawaii land,

including a big chunk of Waikiki.

When you turn Right onto Kalia from Ala Moana Blvd, and drive past the Hilton's 3 heroic hula dancer statues, you are entering the heart of federal property. Fort DeRussy, the Hale Koa hotel, and, Kuroda Field are the sunny face of the military in Hawaii.

Depleted uranium rounds, "ordinance reef" (disposed munitions off of leeward O`ahu), and the militarization of sacred Makua valley

are the less than beautiful face of our military presence.

See, that is a complicated relationship . . .

But today we say a big "Mahalo"

to the men and women of every nation and tribe

who put themselves at discomfort and risk to serve others.

May our "leaders" respect them enough to deploy them with wisdom, discretion, and humanity.

And thanks to you too, Dad,

and ALL veterans.

A L O H A! Cloudia

Take a Pause

ALOHA, Friend!


Welcome to Tuesday
in Waikiki







"Life is what happens while you're making other plans."


-John Lennon









"The future is murky. I Guess it's good to have a past."


-Paul Newman

Stopping to watch the sunset seems to settle and clarify the mind.

Even the Hawaiian breeze, Ka Makani, knows that it is a good time to pause. Your day sweetens as the colors change.

I'd like to think that maturity, the "sunset of life" will be like that.

Do you know the ledgend of the maiden who was directed to walk down the row of corn and to pick one, only one, ear? Right away she saw a good one, but she reasoned that a better one might be a few paces down the row.

At the end of the row, she wished that she had chosen that first ear.

If you know where your next meal is coming from, if you have a home,

if someone is glad to see you arrive, if you are NOT in #10 pain;

then you are fortunate.

Pause to notice all of life's gifts that we take for granted every day.

Sunset is a good time to do that.

Make your own beautiful memories. . . NOW. . .

Aloha! Cloudia

Lingering Ghosts

ALOHA!

WELCOME TO MONDAY

In

HONOLULU

"What is—"Paradise"—
Who live there—
Are they "Farmers"—
Do they "hoe"—
Do they know that this is "Amherst"—
And that I—am coming—too—"

Emily Dickenson

Moe (Sleep)

Maluhia (peaceful)

Breadfruit

on

the

Hoof!

"Family ties in the after-world remain unbroken, and all Hawaiians believe in the power of spirits to return to the scenes they knew on earth in the form in which they appeared while the were alive. Especially is this true of the procession of gods and spirits who come on certain sacred nights to visit the sacred places, or to welcome a dying relative and conduct him to the `Aumakua (ancestral spirit) world."

- Martha Beckworth, "Hawaiian Mythology"

". . . I was allowed a glimpse of a world where the spirits were so ever-present, their manifestations so powerful, that the living and the dead knew no separation...The first direct assault on this [Hawaiian] world of spirit came from the materialism of Westerners who did not recognize the sacredness of all life, animate and inanimate. . . When the Hawaiian spiritual world was altered with the coming of merchants and missionaries, (Samuel M.) Kamakau wrote that much of the Mana left the islands, as new religions, economic systems and attitudes prevailed. In the ancient days, the `Aumakua, family spirits, were healers and 'havens of forgiveness.' They guided the living and even restored life to the dead.' "

- Glen Grant, Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters of Supernatural Hawaii, Mutual Publishing

"We must be skeptical about everything, even skepticism" - Cornell West

)=(

Spiritual energy seems almost tangible here in the Islands of Hawaii. The seas, skies, and mountain forests are rich with presence; perhaps it is the Mana, the spiritual "force" that animates every pebble, every boulder, every plant on these islands. In this magic land, this `Aina, it is very easy to believe in spirits. The soil itself seems alive.

<><

Watching the volcano fountaining one night years ago, my brother suddenly saw Madame Pele, the volcano goddess dancing hula and surfing on the molten lava. He immediately turned to his friend (who turned to him at the same second) and they both blurted out: "Do you see that?!!!!!" Stories of an old woman hitching rides at night, lighting proffered cigarettes with the tip of her finger, and then disappearing after lengthy conversations, are not uncommon, and the drivers SWEAR that it happened; in some cases thanking Pele for keeping them awake and away from the sea cliffs as they drove home drunk in the wee hours.

><>

I myself have experienced the mischievous spirits of our wilder places. One night they awakened me in my Kona coffee shack, way up on the mountainside. I thought it was a large group of partiers approaching. As I awoke completely, I still heard the voices and I saw darting lights about the shack, but I knew that these were not living visitors. After a few moments they disappeared into the silence of a moonlit night. And no, it wasn't a dream . . .

><>

. . . As Glen Grant wrote, the torches still burn right here in Waikiki too! One Christmas eve a few years ago my husband and I were walking along the bustling, crowded, festive sidewalk of Kalakaua Avenue when I looked beyond the beach and out to the dark ocean to see a procession of torches moving slowly along the shoreline. Never had I seen anything like this: not lights, but torches. No one else seemed to notice, and my husband gave only a perfunctory response when I pointed them out to him. He didn't seem to see what I was talking about. Only later did I learn that processions of Hawaiian spirits are thought to travel from Diamond Head to visit the downtown tombs of ancient of chiefs, kings and kahuna. . .

><>

. . .Diamond Head itself once had a Heiau, (temple) called: Papa-ena-ena which was known as a place of processions and occasional human sacrifice. Mark Twain wrote of visiting it's crumbling walls and of the human bones still interred there. In 1874 Queen Emma (brave lady!) used rocks from the site on her Waikiki property, where they remain today at the International Market Place. Maybe that's why it's so easy to get lost in that warren of shops, carts, and bargains? By 1920 all traces of the temple were erased, and a noted girls' school now thrives on that particular slope of Diamond Head. . .

><>

. . .Downtown Honolulu has always been rife with ghosts and their stories. The voices of crying children are heard in the night where the old orphanage was. A young wahine (woman) is seen at dusk on the grounds of Iolani Palace. Its grounds have long been considered a portal to the world of Po (darkness, night). Queen Liliuokalani herself is seen to patrol the precincts of her capitol (and ours!) keeping a watchful eye on the idiocy of our elected officials who bear her Kuleana (responsibilities) today. . .

><>

. . . Honolulu's most famous ghost story was even reported in the newspapers! When King Lunalilo died in 1874 he was buried at midnight (the custom) at the Royal Mausoleum in Nu`uanu Valley above town. His father, however, asked King Kalakaua to remove his sons royal remains to Kawaiaha`o Church where the first elected Hawaiian king could lie with his people. The King acceded to the families wishes deciding, however, that no cannons would sound the 21 gun salute for the procession and re-burial; it seemed inappropriate under the circumstances. So the Punchbowl cannons were ordered to remain silent. As the procession of torches and high Kahili (feathered staff, emblems of High Chiefs and Royalty) approached the city a slight rain (a blessing) baptized the mourners and coffin. Then they heard the first "boom!" Had the King changed his mind about the artillery salute? No! It was thunder from on high! 21 loud, distinct claps of thunder were heard over the town. The clouds parted to reveal a brilliant star-filled tropic sky only as the coffin was re interred. "Thus did the gods overrule the will of a mortal." reported a local paper of the day. I have been to Lunalilo's tomb in the historic churchyard. Locals say that in the depths of night a voice is sometimes heard calling from the tomb, calling for "paka" (tobacco) of which the the King was very fond.

Photos above are from the Kawaiahao churchyard, and the old King Street Cemetery at Ward Avenue. If you are a serious ghost fan, your library MUST contain at least one book by Glen Grant (RIP)! oh, and . . . . . . . .

BOO!!!!!!!!!!

A L O H A, CLOUDIA