Saturday, March 13, 2010

Honolulu Walk

Aloha Friend!

Let's Walk Around
Honolulu Today
and Look at all the Tall Buildings


Click on the buildings to see them grow!
"In the depth of winter,
I finally learned
that within me the lay
an invincible summer."
Camus


"People in the West are always getting ready to live."
Chinese proverb





"If you constantly think of illness,
you eventually become ill;
if you believe yourself to be beautiful,
you become so."
Shakti Gawain




It's a good time for a fresh look at what we value; not with our words, but in our day to day actions.

We post-moderns have gained much materially, but we have surrendered lots of the real texture, flavor and meaning of life.

Now the spell of "more & more" seems to be melting away.
But the things left standing are the real life treasure:
a warm bed, a healthy body, family & friends,
a quiet moment to contemplate the night sky,
while riding the earth as it ticks off time in seconds and in ages. . .

Sure there will always be day-to-day details,
but we've seem to have taken our eyes off of the treasure
to specialize in details, and we have become dull.

As I go about renegotiating the values in my life
a passage comes to mind:
"They shall mount on eagles wings."

This is a heroic cliche` of an image to someone who lived in a city.
But once I got to Hawaii and watched the IO, the red tailed Hawaiian Hawk, circling over the Big Island, what I saw was a bird going around in circles. They don't fly straight to the heights like a superman, or a rocket. No. As in a flying meditation they retrace the same circumscribed repetition in the sky. Over and over. But I noticed something else too: each circuit takes them imperceptibly higher and higher till they are friendly with the snow covered tropic mountain, Maunakea, and conversant with the clouds and early moon.

Finally, their view is unrestricted.

Stress and striving don't buy them that view.
They attain it by following their true nature.
Perhaps the groaning of the world economic system
will lead us to lives of paradoxical richness?

But just for right now: go outside into nature.
(after you leave your comment ;-)
Play with a child, pet, or childlike adult who you know well,
or just this moment met.
Stop and breathe and go to your heart.
All the answers you need are there patiently waiting.

I've found that stress defeats itself.
Believe me: the experiments were exhaustive and went on for years!
So take it from me: Walk the gentle path . . .
and you may just find yourself spiralling into control. . . effortlessly. Mounting on the wings of your grateful heart.
A L O H A! Cloudia

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Easier said than done, huh? LOL.

Dina said...

Spiraling INTO control--I like that!

Shabbat shalom and shaloha.

Aidyl said...

nice blog! =)
Hawaii seems to be so beautiful~
it was always one of my dream countries to visit.
Maybe someday~~

Dianne said...

I love the light! and reflections

Tankar från Trädgårdsmästarn; Hillevi said...

Hi, grgeetings from Sweden!

Yes, I'm in that living mode today;-) As always with nature...

Pauline said...

What an uplifting post (no pun intended). The rest of my day will be the better for reading this :)

Couture Carrie said...

Gorgeous architecture!
Love the Camus quote too!

Happy Saturday, darling Cloudia!

xoxox,
CC

Ileana said...

What a beautiful, thought-provoking post...something to meditate on this morning while I sip (not gulp) my morning café con leche.

The images and the quotes are equally inspiring. You've left me with an overall feeling of Joy. :)

lady macleod said...

Good quotes, good words, lovely photograhs!

Rosaria Williams said...

Wise words, like wise wings, take us gently into our natural ways.

Love this.

Lana Gramlich said...

To be honest, I'm always somewhat saddened by the urbanization/building up of such Shangri-Las as Hawaii. Label something paradise & then say goodbye, as they say. <:(

Mehmet Osman Çağlar said...

There is nothing to add on these
beatiful things!

Best wishes from Turkey my friend.

magiceye said...

brilliant!

namaste /\

aloha!

Teresa said...

Thanks for your words of wisdom.

Heff said...

"I've seen bigger", LMAO !!!

SandyCarlson said...

Getting ready to live! What we do. Thanks for this. Thanks for reminding me to stop and love it all.

Cloudia said...

Thank YOU!

Junosmom said...

Mmm... thank you for giving me something to write for tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Dear Cloudia,
hopefully everything is fine with you. The chin. proverb will for sure follow me way into the week.
One would love to take a look into your library ;)
After this walk of yours, I tried to shout the name of Honolulu, yet it wouldn't work else but somekind of "singing", guess that's only one part of the magic you do live on the island.
Please have a wonderful Sunday.

Fireblossom said...

Laffin @ "after you leave your comment"!

Cloudia said...

Nice to see YOU!

Gemma Wiseman said...

Some gorgeous thoughts here! Especially love:
"Walk the gentle path . . .
and you may just find yourself spiralling into control. . . effortlessly."

foongpc said...

I love that first picture! Nice! : )

Noe Noe Girl...A Queen of all Trades. said...

good words!
<><

Cloudia said...

Thank YOU!