A   L   O   H   A !
 Tap Tap Tap. . . 
These Hawaiian Ladies are 
manufacturing Kapa Cloth. 
“I was tired of seeing
 the Graces
 always depicted as
 beautiful young things.
 I think wisdom comes 
with age 
and life 
and pain. 
And knowing 
what matters.” 
                   Louise Penny
Pounding out mulberry bark 
to make the cloth
I hole ‘ia no ka i‘e i ke kau o ka lā.
The time to cut designs
 in a tapa beater
 is when the sun is high.
[Do your work 
when you are at your best.]
                                 Hawaiian Proverb
The carved sticks 
that print the patterns
" When 'I' 
is replaced with
 'We', 
even 'Illness'
 becomes 'Wellness'. " 
                                     Malcolm X.
 Drying & inspecting 
the printed Kapa
" To fulfill a dream, 
to be allowed to 
sweat over lonely labor, 
to be given the chance 
to create, 
is the meat and potatoes 
of life. 
The money is the gravy. 
As everyone else,
I love to dunk my crust in it.
 But alone, 
it is not a diet designed 
to keep body 
and soul together. "
                          Bette Davis,
                                                    The Lonely Life, 1962  
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