"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
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Some people worship in a church. Some worship on a motorcycle, or out on the water. For some, spending time with family is their true communion with what matters.
Some of us like to be alone in a quiet place the better to hear that still, small voice.
I believe that the sheer expression of joy in this life, and in each other, is a high form of worship. Last week at a community event, an audience member got up and danced Hula spontaneously.
That filled me with gratitude and a desire to spread the good.
Today's song is upbeat! I find it very compelling:
click on photos for enlargement; yours?
"Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries." James Michener
Trees look ghostly and mysterious at night. I like the rainbow effect in this shot.
"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art." Eleanor Roosevelt
This small dog can drink us all under the table!
"The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it." Samuel Johnson
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Walking along the beach yesterday, I was thinking that it often takes "common sense" a while to catch up to the facts.
Some old folks were afraid to have electricity, or telephones, in their homes. Common sense once proclaimed: "Man was not meant to fly" But we know that men and women DO fly every day, though many of us still feel that primal fear of losing the ground beneath our feet.
Mystics have long taught us that our thoughts have power, effecting ourselves, others, and our circumstances small and large.
Common sense rebels at this, but yesterday I saw a report on the news in which the reporter was driving a small car with only her thoughts!
Brain waves can be measured. When an angry or agitated person enters the room we feel it - whatever our logic dictates.
I like to think that there is a benevolent effect from the love I feel for those who walk beside me.
Today I found the passage below in a book. Coincidence?
"In many ways the spiritual challenge of 'waiting' and becoming a different quality of person makes more of a contribution to this world than financing a new hospital. . . We are unaccustomed to giving value to what we cannot see, and we cannot see the power emitted from a healthy psyche." Caroline Myss "Anatomy of the Spirit"
Our great blogging friend MAGIC EYE of MUMBAI DAILY PHOTO has published a "mate" to the photo below that I took on Wong Ho Lane here in Honolulu. You can see his twinHERE.
ALOHA There is Warmth Here for YOU! it's Thursday in WAIKIKI
Today's background music:
click on photos to get elevated
When you think of Hawaii, these are probably the trees that come to mind.
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"The trees are God's great alphabet:
With them He writes in shining green
Across the world His thoughts serene." ~Leonora Speyer
But we have much leafy treasure, both native and introduced. Here is a tamarind tree, a member of the bean family Fabacceae: Tamarindus Indica
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"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen." Henry David Thoreau
Here is a cool historical illustration of the flowers, leaves & pods of the tamarind.
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"You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night." Denise Levertov
Try living under a coconut palm: *BOOM!*
Here is the Manu O Ku (White Tern) the official Honolulu bird that oft lays it's single egg in the crook of the tamarind.
"And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." William Shakespeare
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(Note: As I write this, it is a chilly morning. We expect today's temps to reach only 76 degrees, Fahrenheit! The air is "cool" and dry, but the sun is most pleasant. Kitty is laying against me for warmth. We send this dispatch to you with love!)
A Tamarind tree was planted in Hawaiian traditional over the PIKO (umbilical cord) of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop in what is now called Tamarind Square in Downtown Honolulu. We nourish the`Aina (land) just as it nourishes us.
As we live on the `Aina, we "make our bones" or Iwi which should be returned to it. The bones have Mana (spiritual power) and so are hidden away from those who might wish to use that power. No one knows where Kamehameha the Great lays for this reason. We honor him at his statue outside the Hawaii Supreme Court, but do not visit a grave or tomb.
Hawaiians called the tamarind, introduced from Asia or Africa, Wi Awa Awa. Awa Awa means "sour" or "tart," which fits since the tree has both sweet and sour varieties.
It is said that this tree was brought to our shores by Don Francisco de Paula Marin who also introduced mangos, grapes, even the plumeria as well as many other "local" favorites. The first tamarinds were planted near what is today's Foster Botanical Garden.
Most of our tamarinds are old trees found in dry places where Hawaiians used to live in traditional fashion.
Some Chinatown markets sell the tamarind fruit, we also see it dried, canned, or preserved with rock salt and wrapped in yellow cellophane as a sweet.
OH sweet trees! I love you- and I don't care who knows it!
What the?! A local food columnist coincidentally wrote about isle cooking with tamarind HERE.
"A man (sic) has not begun to liveuntil he can rise above the narrow confinesof his own individual concernsto the broader concernsof all humanity."Martin Luther King
"The propagandist's purposeis to make one set of peopleforget that certain other sets ofpeople are human."Aldous Huxley
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."Jonathan Swift
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Winter has come to Waikiki. . . The nights are cooling, and it is time to bring out the quilts after months of sleeping only under a thin, rayon pareau (sarong).
There is snow atop the Big Island's Maunakea and Miss Kitty's fur is regal & thick once again. Visitors may only feel the relative mildness but we who live here, Kitty & I, we know the changes of this `Aina (land/country) in our bones and in our noses.
Crystal sharp trade winds bear the scent of Alaska, of thousands of open ocean miles, and vast empires of sky. They pause to pick up smells from yellow ginger, hidden mosses, and tropical soil, as they push themselves over the green Ko`olau mountains that backdrop our toy city like a misty Asian scroll painting.
The character of the clouds tells me it's winter. Is it their shape, activity & color? Or is it their sense of humor as they tumble mumble and disassemble like Circe de Soliel acrobats above us? The Hawaiians of old found ready messages and wisdom in the clouds. Knowing their love of fun and word-play, I think certain funny-clouds rained punchlines that made the Kahuna chuckle all day. . . their cirrus & cumulus descendants are not telling; Not even me, their cousin Cloudia. . .
. . . So Take a moment. Just a moment to stop & take a moment. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Another. Exhale ALL the way. Repeat. Notice the un-noticed sounds surrounding you. Are you cool? Warm? Secretly happy? The clouds won't tell ;-)
Just let the thought-express rattle on without you for a while, who cares? YOU don't! Just for a moment. . . Breathe and Be. The moment of calm clarity that arises is yours to keep. Will you?
"People are like stained-glass windows.
