Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Aloha First Family

ALOHA

Freezing Friends
Welcome to
WARM WAIKIKI

Click on photos for a warm feeling.
Photos courtesy of blog, Talking Points Memo


"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you,
and in the end you are sure to succeed."
- Abraham Lincoln



"The fiery trials through which we pass
will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation."
- Abraham Lincoln


"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help."
- Abraham Lincoln




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Well,
the President and his family boarded Air Force One on Sunday evening,
leaving his childhood home (and birthplace) to those of us lucky enough to remain here.


Watching him walk up the steps with Michelle (on the local news)
my eyes filled with tears.
So much for one man to do! So many challenges!
And so many unthinking folks whose hatred trumps their duty to the future. But don't worry; millionaire Rush says that his first class medical care here in Honolulu proves that our best of all systems WORKS.
Can he really be that insulated or insincere?


My 84 year-old father (a WWII) veteran was on Medicare,
but after his death last May, the hospital (Queens Hospital - where Rush stayed) held my mother up by her ankles and shook the last few thousand dollars out of her bank account for the laborious over-treatment
that Dad was subjected to
in the last weeks of his life.


We wanted him to receive palliative care at home (saving him untold struggle and suffering - and the system tens of thousands of dollars) but his doctor told him that he HAD to continue to get chemo.
"Had to!"
To people of my father's generation the doctor knows best
so Dad fought a hopeless battle, and suffered longer,
instead of making peace.
(Even if he was treated beautifully by the patient care-team.)




Resources were wasted, and my mom still gets calls from creditors.
But hey, isn't it great that the system works!




On his last weekend on-island,
Barack played basketball with his old High School teammates
(they won the State championship together in 1979),
strolled the zoo with his kids, and stopped to pay his respects to his paternal (WWII veteran) grandfather who raised him,
and the other honored dead,
at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
The children were with him for that too.




The United States
is seeing the largest transfer of wealth
(all upward)
in the history of our country.





The Middle Class,
and the "American Dream"
are passing from the scene.




Elites are reckoned to be "worth"
millions, even billions,
even as we close Hawaii's schools on Fridays
for lack of funds.





Too bad that the kids and their parents
don't all work on Wall Street.





The sun is shining today here in Waikiki,
the air is balmy,
and I am grateful
for the treasure of today.





But I also e-mailed my Congressional Representative,
urging him to support Health Care Reform.


So please join me if you can, Fellow Americans:
Don't despair!
Celebrate YOUR life
by making the world better!


To my international friends
who I value so very much:
I wish YOU all of the prosperity & security
of a life well lived,
a life that you work so hard to create.




May all of our children
have a better life than we have had.


And Thanks to each of YOU for listening;

Don't forget the magic that surrounds you!


Warm Aloha, cloudia

Monday, January 4, 2010

A Wonderful Visit to Rajastan!

This post by friend Bhavesh is just fascinating!

http://infobybvc.blogspot.com/2009/12/bhangarh.html

Yearning Part II

ALOHA
Welcome to 2010
in Waikiki


click on the sky photos for possible revelation
"At the innermost core of all loneliness
is a deep and powerful yearning
for union with one's lost self.
Brendan Francis




"I seldom think about my limitations,
and they never make me sad.
Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times;
but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers."
Helen Keller










"Yearning is not only a good way to go crazy
but also a pretty good place to hide out from hard truth."
Jay Cocks



><>


Recently
in a post here
I wondered if the loss of
YEARNING
was something to be mourned.






After writing it
and reading your comments
I began to think that perhaps
my yearning is simply
being
satisfied.








Maybe,
I thought,
there are new signposts
leading me to a destination
that is nearer than ever before.






What if the kingdom
is nearer than we dream?







What if it is at hand
not tomorrow
but in our hearts
right this very minute?






Perhaps we enter heaven
when we dare to believe
and to
let go
?






May this young year
bring you a new kind of wisdom.
May you begin your life in heaven
even as we fight the traffic,
pay the bills,
and create solutions.






Dare to believe
that all is working out
-even as you effort-
and you will become
untouchable . . .






. . .As your influence
expands.




Aloha, dear heart! cloudia

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Obamas and Hawaii Marines

ALOHA!

Here is some video of the Obamas chatting on-base with military folks on Christmas Day...


Thursday, December 31, 2009

New Year's Eve in Waikiki

ALOHA!
it's
New Year Time
in
Waikiki!






click on photos - if you have the time!
The Parade of Life Continues. . .


"We are here to help each other get through this thing,
whatever it is."
Kurt Vonnegut




Some of us are watching it go by. . .


"Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it."
Confucius


And the river, too, flows on. . .




"We don't know the truth at all.
There's mysteries that bubble up within us
that we can't explain
and we can't understand.
And those are
humbling mysteries."
Jamie Hook


><>


Yesterday, some 50,000 pounds of red ahi tuna
passed through Honolulu's United Fish Auction.

EVERYBODY, not just ethnically Japanese residents,
wants to eat the lucky fish at New Year's time!
In Kapahulu and Aiea the THWACK! of the wooden mallet is heard as it comes down in the stone Usu to turn the rice into chewy mochi.
Watch your hand, Uncle!

May we all stick together just like this mochi,
where individual grains of rice have melded.

After his broadcast statement, the President and his family spent Tuesday afternoon at Hanauma Bay snorkeling.
Then yesterday they visited with some of Barry's school friends
on the North Shore.

While he was preparing to tee off (Monday I think) at the course where he learned the game as a boy, the young son of one of his foursome injured himself back at the beach compound (Winter White House?) so they all motored back to the home - the kid is OK. It was described as a "routine beach injury."

I'm sure that the Secret Service could do without the Hawaii custom of
New Year fireworks!

Though firecrackers have just gone (legally) on sale, we have been seeing and hearing illegal aerials for weeks now!
Every year it's the same.

Families who received Toys for Tots for their kids are now seen blowing hundreds on explosives. . . oh well. . .

Tonight, the professional shows will be echoed by the illegals all over the island. The Trade Winds have slacked off, so we can expect a smoky New Year's Eve - no fun for the fire fighters or the police - or anyone with breathing problems.
Pets too suffer and must be sequestered indoors and even sedated.

Meanwhile 70's icons The Village People will bring in the New Year
at one of the hotels down the beach.

We will be sharing champagne here on board da boat.

2009 has been a Year OF Review: the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing, of Woodstock, the passing of Walter Cronkite, as well as numerous other 30, 40 year observances including the 50th anniversary of Hawaii Statehood.
Perhaps we will look ahead to new solutions in the
Year of the Tiger

So Happy New Year, Hauoli Makahiki Hou to Y O U, friend!

Thank you for sharing your visits and comments here at Comfort Spiral!

See you next year . . .

ALOHA, cloudia


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Listen To Louis

ALOHA!

Welcome to Year's End
in

Golden
W A I K I K I




click on photos for instant male enhancement
Diamond Head Celebrates



"My whole life has been happiness,
I love everybody."

Louis Armstrong

Honolulu's Chinatown
><>

"Chinatown is one of the coolest, most interesting places in urban Oahu.
Sure it's gritty, but that's part of it's charm.
Where else can you choose from a rainbow of perfumed shampoos
that sit on a shelf above raw goat meat and a whole pig's head?
It's not a manicured, controlled, master-planned community.

It has all the noise, smells and energy of an open market."
Lee Cataluna



Do you suppose that entire truck is FULL of chocolate??!!



"I began to recognize what I had considered Pops' (Louis Armstrong) grinning in the face of racism as his absolute refusal to let anything, even anger about racism, steal the joy from his life."
Dizzie Gillespie

><>


Is the loss of yearning something to be mourned?
Or was it just the glorification of anxiety?


Even so - if that be the case -
I turned my unease
into a quest for
MORE
experience, knowledge,
and life.



Each new beginning of my life
has been preceded by
existential dissatisfaction
leading to a change,
to chance,
akin to a rebirth.


So is it OK,
or a cosmic sell-out,
to say:
"This must be the place,"
To feel content
or am I losing my edge,
my SELF?


The world
(I am discovering)
operates by rules
very different
from those I grew up with.


Perhaps I needn't be
on guard
quite so much.


I do believe
I will dare to choose
feel good
over
fear.


I made this decision
when I realized that
animals usually look pretty
relaxed.


And when the moment
of
Leap & Pounce
is announced
I will do so in an
instant!



Then
return to grooming
and staring
into
Space...


ALOHA, my Year-End Friends!
cloudia