Sports Roots

A L O H A!

Welcome to Waikiki, Sports Fans

don't be dodos - click on photos



“The royal road to a man's heart
is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.”
Dale Carnegie









"That deed which in our guilt we today call weakness,

will appear tomorrow as an essential link

in the complete chain of Man”
Kahlil Gibran

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy

is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.

Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
William Blake

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When I was a kid, sports seemed like mass psychosis to me. Other kids, and ADULTS got so worked up about a game! Couldn't they just read a book or something?

Some ancient cultures used the outcome of games and competitions as oracles. Their gods literally chose sides and chose the victors. It is precisely the combination of talent, training, & skill plus a thousand and one variables that makes sports so compelling. And they provide a wonderful survival of magical thinking. Witness the rituals that athletes and even fans go through! If I remain standing, my team will score a basket, touchdown, home run or whatever. We make idols and demi-gods of our sports heroes because they are human-yet-excellent. We also like to live vicariously

through them.

This is not purely or even mostly a conscious thing either. When your school or town wins, spirits and testosterone rise!

We no longer build civic temples, but they survive as stadiums. Local teams are one common factor across all strata and conditions of society. Sports are, after all, a surviving, ancient form of mass behavior. Something primitive within each of us, and within our "civilization" still lusts to WIN. And when we DO win, it seems that heaven smiles on us promising to bless all of our endeavors. "What we plant will flourish!"

You might suspect that this post resonates with Monday Night Football here in the US.

Silly!

It's all about baseball and the Phillies.

The team that frustrated grand dad (and an entire city for) decades. Last year I was watching the game with my dad when they won the world series.

Dad passed around 7 months later.

I'm glad we had that moment together before he got really sick and started to leave worldly things behind.

It still chokes me up when I remember him saying:

"I just wish I could drive my car again."

Yes, the mundane things of this world are more important than I realized as a grandiose, underage philosopher

all those sports-hating years ago.

Now the Phillies of my roots, complete with my Hawaii's slugger Shane Victorino, will play in the Big Game for a second year. And when they do, I'll be watching along with many ghosts.

Yes, and I'll be enjoying every mundane little thing about it including the junk food snacks.

All the precious, passing Earthly treasures!

'Cause in heaven

there aint no beer.

But all pets go to heaven - so there will be someone to play catch with!

SHOUT OUT: To Universty of Hawaii/Manoa Women's Volleyball Coach, Dave Shoji on his 1000th Victory last week.

Go Wahine!

A L O H A, Cloudia

Carp, Curry, Leaves & Idols

A L O H A!

It's Sunday in Waikiki

and YOU are invited!

click on images to enhance "Tutu ("grandmother") give me a penny to throw."

"So say it loud and let it ring. We are all a part of everything.
The future, present and the past.

Fly on proud bird.
You're free at last."

Charlie Daniels

MMM! Chicken Katsu ("Cutlet") Curry Saimin... ONO! ("Yummy")

"Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power,
has that ability to comfort."
Norman Kolpas

"Lazy Laugh Hand Out"


"If there is magic on the planet, it is contained in the water."
Loren Eisley

From time immemorial

God was the mystery

beyond comprehension.

Not to be controlled or contained

by mere definition.

But once the church fathers

indulged lofty explanation

in the style and rhetoric

of

Greek philosophy

They unwittingly debased

the Most Magnificent Mystery

into a mere logic-compelling

argument.

But mysteries

are mysteriously "known"

not dissected.

And it is just this

"dissected god"

that has morphed into an

idol.

As the Cloud of Unknowing

drifts above on a

smile.




A L O H A :]

cloudia

Smell That?

A L O H A Friends

Welcome to

Saturday Waikiki

click on photos to make bigger Let's relax under the banyan tree

"I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through

the deepest snow

to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch,

or an old acquaintance among the pines."

Henry David Thoreau

My retinas are burning! That's PINK!

“Almost all words do have color and nothing is more pleasant than to utter a pink word and see someone's eyes light up and know it is a pink word for him or her too”
Gladys Taber

Ah! Noble Green Greetings.

"All theory, dear friend, is gray,

but the golden tree of life springs ever green."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe



Do you smell it? Have you guessed?

MMMMM! New computer smell!

After months of investigation and self doubt, I have obtained another DELL laptop. Dual core processor, Windows 7, and yummy ice blue case.

I'm stylin` baby!

Now I won't need that fail safe post I had all set to post if I couldn't get back on line for a while. If all goes as planned, you should find it just below this post.

But before you scroll there, please check out today's video of old friend Soupy Sales who died yesterday. In the black & white world of my childhood Soupy and his happy hipster irreverence opened a window on a world of joyous nonconformity that delighted me.

His TV world complemented the art of Dali and Magritte. Looking at his few videos available at You Tube made me laugh out loud again, and to remember early joys.

I hope it makes you laugh too.

Thank you kindly for your visit today.

And now, here's Mr. Sales:

A L O H A! Cloudia

If You Are Reading This...

Note: This sheduled post was set to publish if my computer blew up. Now that I have a new laptop I thought I'd share it merely for your pleasure. To recap: I will be posting as usual!

Don't worry!

I'm NOT dead. . . at least I don't think I am.

But my computer is so old ("How old is it?")

that it is STEAM powered.

It's operating system was written by a caveman.

It has taken some interesting contortions, tricks, and propitiations to keep the old Dell running.

But I do love my antique technology. . . .
Plus, I'm as thrifty as a grandmother.

I went through a time of asking every computer-savvy

person I met:

"Are you a Mac or a PC?"

I examined the option of using a Net Book.

Finally, I decided to stay an un-hip PC laptop.

Windows 7!

If I can just hold on until I can buy a box with Windows 7!

Thursday October 22 is the day that I can buy a computer with the newest operating system

(and put the old one into a museum!).

I'm really looking forward to it.

Visiting all of YOUR blogs has been an ordeal with the old OS; I'm really looking forward to visiting you more often!

But if you are reading this post, it means that I didn't make it.

The old lap top has finally passed on!

Thanks old pal; We graduated college, wrote a novel, and launched this blog together.

So if you, my Dear Bloggy Pals, are reading this: PLEASE be patient!

Please check back!

I will return, as Benjamin Franklin's gravestone says, "In a revised and improved edition."

Do check out posts you may have missed.

There's tons of stuff here that deserves to live beyond it's

one butterfly day.

In REAL Cloudia withdrawals (so modest!) you might consider clicking on the image of my little novel at the foot of this blog. That will take you to Amazon where you can buy the sweet little book that many folks seem to have enjoyed.

" I'll be BACK!!!

I WILL Find YOU! "

Until then, Warm Aloha to Each of YOU, my friends.

I'll be (in withdrawals and) missing YOU more. . . .Cloudia

Hump Week

A L O H A

to YOU.

&

W E L C O M E

click on photos for greater enjoyment

"The key to communication

is the attitude that lies behind

what we say."

Marianne Williamson

"Nobody holds a good opinion

of a man who has

a low opinion of himself."

Anthony Trollope

"To talk to a child, to fascinate him,

is much more difficult than to win an electoral victory.

But it is also more rewarding."

Colette

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As many as ten thousand of them may be expected.

They show up every year.

The Kolea (golden plover)

has already arrived from Alaska.

But these honored guests have waited

to make their entrance.

Till now!

This week

off Maui:

The humpback whales have returned once more!

To calve, to nurse, to enjoy our island waters.

Aloha Welcome

our longtime friends!

In your faithfulness

you remind us of ancient cycles.

And

we celebrate you

with awe.

All guests - that's YOU dear reader -

bring a blessing.

Thank You Most Warmly, Cloudia

You might enjoy these previous posts about whales:

http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2008/12/whales-return.html

http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2008/12/click-on-photos-to-enlarge-ted-trimmer.html

http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2009/04/seasonable-neighbors.html

F L Y I N G

A L O H A

Means "You are welcomed lovingly."

Sometimes it means "Goodbye with love."

photo clicks engender enlargement

Leaving on a jet plane. . .

(The biggest hit song for Peter, Paul and Mary,

and also their last. 1969)

"Oh, kiss me and smile for me

Tell me that you'll wait for me

Hold me like you'll never let me go'

Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane

I don't know when I'll be back again

Oh, babe, I hate to go"

John Denver

I am rooted, but my scent travels to you on a breeze!

"When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall,

but a hundred acorns are sown in silence

by an unnoticed breeze.”
Thomas Carlyle

Hawaiian Heirloom Bracelet with Olde English Script
alluding to a "Cloud" in Hawaiian. Accompanying bangles are
"Mings of Honolulu" estate pieces.

“How sweet to be a Cloud

Floating in the Blue!”
A. A. Hodge








This video is exhilarating.
Come slip the surly bonds of Earth with me.
Let's play in the sky!

Till tomorrow, friend!

A L O H A Cloudia

Remarkable Cherif

A L O H A

to You Friend. . . Come In!

Photo Click Regime in Place

Workers in Squares

"Whether you think you can - or you can't- you are right."

Henry Ford

Summer Lingers in Waikiki



"We always find what we are looking for."
Psychological Principle



Kitty. . . You LLook...Strange!









Did you ever want to go out into the desert and study with all the contemplative monks in their isolated cells?
To stand upon the power spots of the pyramids
and temples of Egypt?
To read ancient wisdom books at the Vatican in their original words, and to speak many languages?
How would you like to develop so much insight and behavioral prowess that you travel the world as a gifted medical intuitive?





Well, on Saturday I met remarkable young man who has done all of those things; Meet Cherif.






Cherif spoke to a small group about discovering our true desire, about acting with inner conviction, and about achieving that desire "as if you are racing there on rails."






Some of Cherif's Wisdom:




"Without self confidence you will never see the way,"
he told us.
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"The key is knowing yourself, and having such intimacy with wisdom, that you trust & understand that guidance will always be there when needed."
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"If we keep sending present energy into the past and future,
it turns into poison in our lives."
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"Gratitude is power."
<>
"Once you judge someone or something, you are stuck with the experiences that grow out of that judgement."
<>




"We too often navigate from our experiences - we need to change our minds to change our experiences.
We find just what we expect to."
<>
"Our emotion is the fuel
that makes our thoughts come to pass."
<>
"Nonresistance frees your energy."
(Don't resist - follow your desire somewhere different.)
<>
"Be patient - be happy."
<>
"Don't analyze - accept and move forward."
<>
"Grace cancels karma, translating you to a place
where you live on divine substance."






Yes, Cherif gave us many tools for changing our lives,
but some seemed dissappointed that it wasn't magic, instant, or something that he would do for us.


Instead he shared what he has learned so far on his remarkable spiritual journey.





Why is it that we seldom want to take the very steps that will take us where it is we say that we want to go?



I have learned that following my bliss sometimes leads (paradoxically) through unsought challenges. I have come to almost enjoy, not fear, such envelope-pushing.






Sometimes a dragon guards the treasure we desire.
Staying in our comfort zone will not get us to the prize.




Cherif has discovered some great truths and lives happily with them. What are YOUR great truths?
Do they serve or hinder you?
Just remember that the Comfort Spiral is here for you,
an oasis on the way out of exile. . .


ALOHA & Thank You for YOUR Visit Today!
Cloudia