Gym of the Spirit

ALOHA! WELCOME!

Click on photos to enlarge "All fantasy should have a solid base in reality."

Max Beerbohm

"We have no reliable guarantee that the afterlife will be any less exasperating than this one, have we?" Noel Coward


"Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe."
Alan Watts




Our adversary
(by the grace of God)
changes tactics
as we grow and change.



When it grows too easy
to overcome some challenge
the challenges
shift.



One strength has been gained
now to grow another.
The very definition
of a work-out.



The "devil"
is the dead weight that we lift.
But it is not bodily muscles
that we are developing.

My Town Monday: Firefighting Kings

Alexander Joy Catrwright,

Honolulu Firefighter and the "Father of Baseball"

Guardians hover nearby

“Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world”
The Talmud

Honolulu Fire Department's HQ & Museum


“It's true that heroes are inspiring, but mustn't they also do some rescuing if they are to be worthy of their name? Would Wonder Woman matter if she only sent commiserating telegrams to the distressed?”
Jeanette Winterson

Only our fire trucks arrive with a surfboard for rescues!


“We have been surfing our whole lives, so protecting the oceans and beaches is especially important to us. It is our honor and privilege to participate in such a worthy cause.”
Brandon Boyd

The first HFD Central Station/HQ opened on this Beretania St. site on December 1, 1897. The art deco replacement above opened in 1935. These aluminium doors came from the California Artistic Metal & Wire Company and cost $9,960.





January 11th, 1851 is considered the birthday of the Honolulu Fire Department (H F D). King Kamehameha III, whose decree was published on that day, was known to role up his sleeves alongside volunteer firefighters. They wore red shirts back then.



King Kalakaua, the "Merrie Monarch" was Himself the first secretary of Honolulu's Number 4 Engine Company during the 1880's. And Alexander Joy Cartwright (the father of baseball!) was appointed HFD's first Chief Engineer. He later rose to Department Chief through election, never returned to his native New York, and is buried here in Honolulu.



The "Protection Hook & Ladder Company" (today's Company Number 4) was founded in September of 1857 and staffed entirely by Hawaiians. China Engine Company Number 5 (January 1861) consisted of Chinese firefighters.



Each firehouse was an important part of it's immediate neighborhood, and of the life of the city - even politically. Maybe Cartwright brought a little "Tammany Hall" politics with him from New York.



Every February, the fire companies held street parades that showcased their "modern" equipment.



April 19, 1886 saw the Great Chinatown Fire which gobbled up many Honolulu city blocks. King Kalakaua himself helped to fight that one, inspiring everyone by his conduct on that day. In May of that year, the King signed our first building ordinances to help prevent future conflagrations. (He later threw the switch for Honolulu's first public electric lights in 1888, and installed telephones in Iolani Palace.)



On December 7, 1941 two HFD captains, John Carreira and Thomas S. Macy, were killed in the Pearl Harbor attack along with hose-man Harry T.L. Pang as HFD battled flames at Hickam Airfield. Six firefighters wounded in the attack received Purple Heart medals from the Territory's Military (Martial Law) Governor. They were the only civilian fire fighters ever awarded this military honor.





In June of 1946 the Army and Navy established a Mutual Aid Agreement with HFD to assist in the fighting of fires anywhere on the island. These agencies continue to cooperate.



Today Honolulu enjoys the protection of a modern HFD that flies it's own Helecopter and operates the fireboat "Moku Ahi."


So let's salute the people of the Honolulu Fire Department; The only department in the USA founded by Royalty, that grew up in a Territory, and flourishes today in a modern city.


Thank you, HFD.


And thank each of YOU for visiting my town today!

A L O H A! Cloudia

The First Day Of

Click on photos to enlarge! "Our true nature is not some ideal that we have to live up to. It's who we are right now, and that's what we can make friends with and celebrate."

K.D. Singh

"The one who claims knowledge, has no knowledge; but the person who claims nothing, knows."

Hindu Scripture

"If you want to become whole,

let yourself be partial.

If you want to become straight,

let yourself be crooked.

If you want to become full,

let yourself be empty.

If you want to be reborn,

let yourself die.

If you want to be given everything,

give everything up."

Tao Te Ching,

S. Mitchell translation

A L O H A!

Cloudia

No Tourists

Big Taro Leaves

the Hawaiian "staff of life"

"What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child?"

Lin Yutang

Birds in Frame!

"How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!"

Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J.S. Cooper, 1880

Lum Yip Kee & Sky

"If you cannot be a poet, be the poem."

David Carradine

No Tourists in Town!

That's right. We call them "visitors" as in Hawaii Visitors Bureau.

I've always liked that old fashioned way of thinking about folks from elsewhere. It speaks of our local pride, identification with our island home & our traditional spirit of welcome. Yes, they all manage to hang on somehow – even in our topsy-turvy day.

It's called Aloha!

Yes, the real Waikiki, the genuine Hawaii, they do still exist.

Some visitors are fooled by our modern tempo and amenities, but for those with a heart to see more deeply, there is authenticity.

The key (as always) to finding it, is to bring your own along with you. . .

Actually, I've made my peace with tourism.

It used to bother me to see visitors shopping at chain stores, eating in chain restaurants, spending their days on

"Activities"

and never tasting, or even glimpsing,

the authentic treasures

that I love about my

unique Honolulu Town.

Now I realize that "authentic experience" is not the same

for everyone.

Some folks just want to lie on a beach,

and have drinks with umbrellas in them.

That's cool.

I've stopped judging them

or wondering at their

in-curiosity.

To each their own!

And I'm certainly grateful to each one who does visit us.

But if you want living history,

a wide palate of food choices,

people & places unique in all the world,

then you will find all that here in Honolulu

and MORE.

If you want a package deal,

that product called a

"vacation"

you can find that here

too.

One of the best you ever had!

If you Comfort Spiralers would like to look at some authentic Hawaiian fabrics,

perhaps to make some lovely Spring/Summer clothes,

visit this website for Fabric Mart.

Check out their hula implements too!

http://www.fmart.com/

The world's premier Hula event,

the Merrie Monarch Festival,

begins next week

for the 45th year.

And many of the dancers will be clad in Fabric Mart patterns!

But more about that laters!

(Including information about watching it on line!)

Aloha to each of YOU

my friends

!

The very BEST Age

Click on photos to enlarge! Sea Turtle, Beth Eisenberg

“You had me at hello.”

Jerry Maguire, Film

"The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose."
Heda Bejar

White Ginger

Love is being stupid together.
Paul Valery

In the classic Hollywood film, GIGI, the immortal Maurice Chevalier sings a very wise song called: "I'm glad I'm not young anymore."

There are lyrics like: "Will her friends like you; Will yours like her? Ah, I'm glad I'm not young anymore!"

Me, I enjoyed being young.

In fact, it took me a long time to outgrow my toys. Though preternaturally mature, I submerged myself in imaginative play to a late age and propitiated my dolls like touchy little gods.

How would I one day hide my play from a husband & children?!

The day came, of course, when I "outgrew" childish preoccupations, or rather forgot them for adolescent ones.

Clothes & poses,

Midnight roses

Love's neuroses

Ah! I'm glad I'm not young anymore!

A wonderful freedom accompanies maturity, I think.

You've peeked behind the curtain.

And if I want a cookie, I'll HAVE one!

So don't bemoan your age - what ever age it is!

Celebrate your simple fact of your existence,

Perhaps by savoring

a cookie ;-)

A L O H A! Cloudia

Spring Aloha Blossoms

Pink Lehua

"In dreams begin responsibilities."

Yeats

Iolani Palace

"A baby is God's opinion that life should go on."

Carl Sandburg

Little Red Fellow through a Screen

"Give a person a fish, and you will feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet, and they won't bother you for weeks."

Anonymous

This winter was wet in Waikiki.

Rainy perhaps, but in a beautiful tropical way!

News of blizzards and tornadoes from the "continent" sure put a little sweet rain (`Ua Li`i Li`i) into perspective. And when the skies do clear, WOW!

Today, I saw a city worker mowing the grassy highway median, followed by an assistant: a tall white egret hungry for stirred-up snacks. Ah the smell of fresh-cut grass!

And gingers are suddenly blooming EVERYWHERE; Red Torch Ginger, delicate Pink Shell Ginger. . .

Once again O`ahu dons her Spring aloha wear of blossoms. . .

April is the cruelest month, so the poet claims.

Her fresh green blooming mocks our creaky backs. . .

And we remember

those

who, unlike Persephone,

have not returned,

to us. . .

But do not mourn

for Spring is Born

Again

In our hearts

Wreathed

In gentle

Mists. . .

A L O H A! CLOUDIA

A Small Victory

Click on photos to enlarge!Hawaiian Hawksbill Sea Turtle

"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously."

Hubert Humphrey

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

"The best way to realize the pleasure of feeling rich is to live in a smaller house than your means would entitle you to have."
Edward Clarke

Lunch in Chinatown

"The basic work of health professionals in general, and of psychotheripists in particular, is to become full human beings and to inspire full human-beingness in other people who feel starved about their lives."

Chogyam Trungpa

All those sleepless nights finally paid off. And, honestly, weren't they fun? Camping on remote Big Island (Hawaii) beaches, talking story deep into the night, as the hoku (stars) surge and spiral above. . .

From June to December for 20 years now the volunteers have spent island-hot days in coastal Puna and Ka`u trapping mongoose, feral cats and rats. For these are the culprits who feast on the hatchlings.

Our local population of Hawaiian Hawksbill Sea Turtles was in obvious decline. Finally, the volunteers decided to act; Not only culling predators, but even guarding nest sites for long nights until conditions were fulfilled.

Sometimes, wrapped in purpose & wonder on those velvet nights, the humans even witnessed an immemorial scene: female turtles emerging from the surf, hauling inch by inch, to the high water mark where they lay, and then bury, their 150 eggs. Volunteers listened to their labored breathing in the dark, a sound more ancient than the first baby's cry.

Then the mama turtles resumed their submarine flight, never knowing that guardians were standing by.

Interspecies angels.

But today turtle numbers are climbing again. One small victory in the pilgrimage of conscience. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia