Saturday, November 28, 2009

ALOHA Saturday

It's ALOHA Saturday
in Waikiki
and YOU are most welcome!




click on photos for all the usual reasons

"Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul."

Henry van Dyke




"If we are to achieve results never before accomplished,
we must expect to employ methods never before attempted."
Sir Francis Bacon





"The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy."

Emily Dickinson


<>< <>< ><>


Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.




Naomi Shihab Nye



ALOHA, cloudia


20 comments:

  1. This is really beautiful, Cloudia. I remember when I was so worried about my son going to Mali with the Peace Corps. My mother said, "Let him go. Let him suffer so he can become a man and understand what happiness, security and comfort is." He did learn to appreciate everything he has now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This morning we lit the slim white candles
    which bend over at the waist by noon.
    For once the priests weren't fighting
    in the church for the best spots to stand.
    As a boy, my father listened to them fight.
    This is partly why he prays in no language
    but his own. Why I press my lips
    to every exception.

    Naomi Shihab Nye - Half-And-Half

    ReplyDelete
  3. Omg!!! First, this is probably my favorite Cloudia post EVER. Second, you know I love the bit about letters, lol. (you do know I am a mail lady, yeah?) Thirdly, I LOVE the thing about kindness. But what blew me away even more was that the quote was not from you, but from Naomi! I knew her, when i was a drunken fledgling poet living my previous life in San Antonio, MANY years ago. Wow. She was a neat gal--and I'm sure still is--who was kind to somebody who was a marginally talented mess.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Profound words.
    I am interested in this Hawaiian statue. Is he a god?
    Have a nice Sunday.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I discovered a long time ago that kindness during hard times is by far the greatest kindness

    I love the first photo

    ReplyDelete
  6. If you have to choose between being kind and being right, always choose to be kind.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely quotes, especially the last one. Like love, kindness never fails. Aloha, Gal pal!

    ReplyDelete
  8. aloha
    i have just ordered your book from amazon - hopefully it will arrive before christmas, and i will have something good to read during my holidays!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What great comments!

    Thanks very much for ordering my book "Aloha Where You Like Go?"

    The statue is hidden away in a back alley of Waikiki; he's not any Hawaiian god that I know of.

    YOU are so appreciated for your welcome visits!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Aloha Cloudia! Don't know how I landed here, but it's a great blog you have here; wonderful pictures, great text, fabulous quotes!!!
    Take care and have a great weekend!!
    Blogtrotter

    ReplyDelete
  11. Truly beautiful and inspiring, with wonderful photos - a warm calm feeling on a chilly windy day!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love this post, and what Kay relayed her mother told her. We live, we learn, especially from adversity.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Realised that kindness is a 'curve' without an end about two years ago.
    From time to time need a reminder though - thank you.
    A wonderful first Advent for you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. So glad you folks could visit today!
    Thank You-

    ReplyDelete
  15. ya..as long as there's honey, the bee is happy..

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wonderful quotations and photos. Green. Lush. Verdure.

    Three cheers and salud'

    ReplyDelete
  17. Such a beautiful and wise post Cloudia. Thank you my friend. Aloha!

    ReplyDelete

Thank You for Sharing.
SOME Comments are going
to Moderation. Fear Not! We
See & Publish them ALL Happily!