Choose Your Path

Click on photos to enlarge! Empty beach - Full sky

"The opposite of prosperity is not extinction."

Ian Parker

Undisturbed Morning, Waikiki

"Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

Albert Einstein

Blooming Aloe & Fuel

“When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it's not so much which road you take, as how you take it.”
Charles de Lint

While learning to ride a motorcycle, I was taught the importance of focus. "Where you look - is where you will go." When an obstruction or pothole appears in the road, the eye is drawn to it. But instead of fixing on it, the experienced rider looks at the road ahead, glancing along the clear path around.

Too often, we focus our energy & attentions on that which troubles or displeases us. The rule of attention attracts to us more of the same; We encounter about what we expect to.

In fact we are often oblivious to easy solutions, as we beat our heads bloody on the wall beside an unlocked door. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia

Banana Fana Bo Bana

Click on photos to enlarge! Reflected Glory

The Lehua blossom unfolds when the rains tread on it."

Hawaiian Proverb

Another View


"I want to die in my sleep like my friend.... Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car."

Wil Shriner

Gatekeeper

"We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

Pierre Corneille

Today I was feeling a bit sad.

I was sad about my father's declining health.

Strangely my feelings felt somehow "clean."

A calmness prevailed.

No shaking my fist at fate,

or at God.

No "What if" or "Why not."

Just smelted acceptance; and gratitude.

Gratitude that I got to spend time with him late in life,

Gratitude, and apprehension

that indefinite time, and pain remain to him.

And I realized something then.

I finally understood:

When trauma and disaster are overcome

a space is cleared

for appropriate grief

in it's proper season.

But what remains is luminous

and oh so beautiful!

A L O H A! Cloudia

Kimono Cuties

Click on photos t0 enlarge! "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right."

Isaac Asimov
Honolulu in the 1850's

"When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable."
Madeleine L'Engle


Husband & Wife

"A successful marriage is an edifice that must be rebuilt every day."
Andre Maurois

Picture Brides en route to new lives in Hawaii

"Marriage. It's like a cultural hand-rail. It links folks to the past and guides them to the future."
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

Back "in the day," many Asian men came to Hawaii as contract laborers intending to return home with their savings at the end of the contract period. Lots of these single men decided to stay on in the Kingdom (later the Republic, then the Territory) and sent back to their home countries for wives. Some marriages were arranged by families; other wives were chosen by the men themselves from among "picture brides."

These pioneering Hawaii couples usually had their pictures professionally taken, and they sent copies back to family in "the old country." The men wore suits to betoken their successful adaptation to "the west." But they wanted to preserve their culture, and for their wives to remain traditional. Hence the genre of Kimono pictures. In the earliest times, the wife would wear her own best kimono. In later days, the photographer might own the clothing used in the "shoot."

Even today in Hawaii, especially on "Girl's Day" or Hina Matsuri in March, local children still dress in kimono to be photographed. A tradition that used to be specific to the local Japanese community is now enjoyed by girls and families from all walks of island life.

Hina Matsuri has its roots in an ancient Shinto spring-welcoming ritual celebrating the Earth's annual renewal. It is sometimes referred to as the "peach festival" ("momo no sekku") because the peach symbolizes softness, mildness, peacefulness, happiness and marriage.

The festival is also the time when Japanese families bring out a "hina ningyo," or "doll display." "Hina Matsuri," in fact, translates as "doll festival. The full hina ningyo can encompass up to seven tiers, topped by dolls representing an Emperor and Empress of the Heian Period (794-1192). The lower tiers display three ladies-in-waiting, court musicians, government officials, and footmen in imperial livery. The bottom one contains items of daily life such as carriages, dressers, plates and peach trees.

Less-than-wealthy families usually started their Hina Ningyo with the emperor and empress dolls, then added to the collection year by year. It was said that anticipating each year's new doll would cultivate patience, respect, diligence and responsibility in the family daughters. The hina ningyo was put on display about two weeks before Hina Matsuri, then taken down on that day. It was believed that leaving the display up beyond March 3 would cause the girl(s) to marry late.

In today's Hawaii, community organizations host events where girls are invited to be dressed up by professional kimono dressers, and to have their pictures taken. Girls who possess their own kimono are encouraged to wear them and take part in a parade.

A L O H A! Cloudia

MTM, Honolulu Living History

Moonlight Hawaii, Vintage Postcard

"Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu ... It is a typical western city ... It is the meeting place of East and West, the very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected, you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these strange people live close to each other, with different languages and different thoughts; they believe in different god and they have different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And somehow as you watch them, you have an impression of extraordinary vitality" Somerset Maugham in 1921

Honolulu Harbor, T.H. (Territory of Hawaii)

Post Card

"The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it. Every step revealed a new contrast - disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. ... I saw cottages surrounded by ample yards, ... I saw luxurious banks and thickets of flowers, fresh as a meadow after a rain, and glowing with the richest dyes ...I saw huge-bodied, wide-spreading forest streets ... I saw cats - Tom cats, Mary Ann cats, long-tailed cats, bobtail cats. . .individual cats, groups of cats, platoons of cats, companies of cats, regiments of cats, armies of cats, multitudes. . . and all of them sleek, fat, lazy, and sound asleep ... I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India ... I moved in the midst of a summer calms as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden ..."

Mark Twain on Honolulu

Today, a modern city surrounds Diamond Head

"Honolulu - it's got everything. Sand for the children, sun for the wife, sharks for the wife's mother." Ken Dodd

Reading a historical novel that bears the name of one's Home Town is an unusual experience. Well, Brennert's Honolulu is as good as I could have hoped for. This is what they call a "page turner," except that I'm enjoying it too much to hurry! There are wonderful sentences to linger over, and savory bits of Honolulu history that illuminate my hometown ever more deeply and richly.

This author also animates the thoughts and emotions of women characters so well that it is irresistible for me to identify with Jin, the heroine. Frankly, I see many parallels between her immigrant story and mine. The story of Honolulu is the story of those who came here from far away - beginning with the voyaging Hawaiians themselves.

Hawaii continues to lure many. Some she expels outright. She seems especially to test those who wash up here determined to stay sight unseen, especially those of us like Jin and myself with no "back" to go "back" to.

Life here is very hard, until one day you wake up and realize how much this place has become a part of you (and vice versa); how much you love Honolulu Town and her people, and that you could never live anywhere else for the rest of your life. You passed the purification, been humbled, been hanai-ed (adopted) become "local."

It was very difficult to pull myself away from the story this morning, but as my day would take me into the Historic core of my town, I was (in a real sense) still in it's setting. Walking today on streets named in the novel, I saw and knew not just what was so pungent before my eyes, but my own taxi memories of nights long ago, things vanished, and landmarks that remain. Now, thanks to Brennert, the people and places of even older times are all around me too.

There's no other place exactly like this place, my hometown: Honolulu!

A L O H A! Cloudia

Sunday Ramble

Click on photos to enlarge! Maureen's Street

“Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror”
Byrd Baggett

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
Henry David Thoreau

Saint Patrick's Day Band

“Hey mister music, sure sounds good to me. I can't refuse it, what to be got to be”
Bob Marley

The weather here should be classified as a drug. Sun, sky, sea, and smiles are intoxicating.

I'm going out to play now. Hope you are too. Happy Springtime & ALOHA! Cloudia

Brennert a Class Act

Click on photos to enlarge!"The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself."
Rita Mae Brown


A Very Competent Workman

(He is making the "Shaka" gesture that is a friendly greeting among Hawaii people - NOT a gang sign!)

"Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it."
Henry David Thoreau

Alan Brennert: Author & Gentleman

“A gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”
George Bernard Shaw

Throughout classic Asian cultures, a person was not considered completely cultivated, truly civilized, if they could not write a passable poem. Additionally, it was the height of barbarity & rudeness to receive one and NOT reply. By these lights, many otherwise well-regarded modern folks are barbarians. How many of us have sent a manuscript, CD, or weblink to someone we might reasonably expect an acknowledgement from, and then heard. . . Nothing. . . ?

Then there are recognized artists, or writers, who remain humble even while enjoying best seller(s), the laurels, and the rewards that success brings. They feel, perhaps, a responsibility to their muse & a mission to carry the torch with some purpose greater than their egos. They remain alert to the struggling beginner for whom a kind word is like winning a prestigious award. No need to lie, a mere friendly acknowledgement will satisfy the hobbyist, feed and fire up the true & lonely journeyman.

A while back I blogged a review of Alan Brennert's Molokai a novel that haunts me still with it's successful alchemy of research, skill, & magic. You can look at the review here:

http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2008/12/fiction-nonfiction.html#links

Well, out of the blue, Mr. Brennert was kind enough to send me a friendly e-mail graciously thanking me for the review! His book is already HUGE, and he's on to the next one. He didn't have to do that. He wrote that my little Hawaii novel, Aloha Where You Like Go? and this blog, looked "interesting" and invited me to meet him here in Honolulu during the promotional tour of his latest: Honolulu.

Last Saturday was rainy, and wet in more ways than one (see previous post Water Week). Consumed by my domestic excitement I had forgotten the long awaited rendezvous. At 20 minutes till the book signing, the light went on! I jumped into clothes (all black matches - no thinking) and even found a parking spot. (quite a condensed sentence eh?).

Mr. Brennert's latest, is the story of a young Korean "Picture Bride" who came to these islands in the early 20th century to marry. Many mainlanders cannot discern a Chinese from a Japanese person. Living in Hawaii, I have had the privilege and pleasure of meeting and befriending the above, plus Korean-Americans, and thus becoming aware of this great culture even before TV's LOST, or Hyundai.

The early chapters of Honolulu have already "hooked" me, and taught me things I never understood about the "Yobo" culture, food, history & language. When the action moves to Hawaii I'll need to retreat to a locked room to gorge on this story. Do not disturb. The man has skills and heart - the unbeatable literary combination! He mentioned during the reading, that he chose a Korean protagonist partly because the wonderful independent film Picture Bride had already addressed the story from the better-known Japanese perspective. Smart move. Picture Bride is a masterpiece that says more about the real Hawaii than a dozen history books! I strongly suggest that you see it. AFTER reading Honolulu that is ;-)

Alan was friendly, and humbly happy to exchange signed books. Easily wearing the generosity of "the great" he elevated me to his rarefied empyrean, and we talked simply as fellow writers. I personally know how exhausting (if exhilarating) it is to address even a sympathetic audience about one's passion. And this was the last stop of the tour for a very sniffly and sore-throated author!

Nevertheless, he took time to talk story with me about his career (TV writing, genre fiction) about the process of researching and producing a novel, and about his love of Hawaii. "The next book," he said, "won't be set in the islands. Don't want to be typecast." Cloudia (relieved): "That's my pigeon-hole!"

So check out Honolulu. And thank you for entering the Comfort Spiral! Stop by any time; The A l o h a here is always as fresh as two-finger poi! Cloudia

Swim, Boy, Swim!

Click on photos to enlarge! "Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find their salvation near you."
Catherine de Hueck Doherty

1923 Ford touring car

"If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at the age of 22, it would have changed the history of music... and of aviation."
Tom Stoppard




"The only competition worthy a wise man is with himself”
Anna Jameson



All of nature is animate; Lovers

“The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult.”
Madame Marie du Deffand

Maui Realtor Mike Spalding is in his early sixties but his version of "taking it easy" might not match yours exactly. A few nights ago the long distance swimmer, and recent inductee into the Hawaii Swimming Hall of Fame, set out to retrace the crossing by Kamehameha's flotilla of war canoes of the 30 mile wide Alenuihaha Channel from the Big Island to Maui.

All was proceeding "swimmingly." Spalding was in the zone beloved of distance athletes and the crossing looked good. Then something in the wine dark sea scratched his chest. He realized that the light from his accompanying kayak had attracted a swarm of cuttlefish. A moment later, a 1 inch by 3 inch bite was taken out of his leg, probably by a cookie cutter shark feeding on the cuttlefish. No word on if the little shark spit out the human flesh and said "Phooey." Mike called the kayak over and scrambled aboard, filling it with fresh blood.

Cookie Cutters grow to only about 2o inches long, but they possess a serrated row of sharp teeth suggesting the eponymous baking tool. They take a bite and SPIN. Ouch!

Maui boy intends to complete the swim at a future date. No quote from da shark. As for me? Look for me under a ridiculously big straw hat FAR up the beach. . . A L O H A! Cloudia