A Day

Aloha, Friend!
It's Thursday in
Honolulu

One of the most achingly lovely songs of all time:


click on the images!

Honolulu's Aloha Tower,
one-time site of the comings and goings of passenger ships.
You can almost hear the Royal Hawaiian Band playing, smell the lei for sale, and see the splashing children as they dive for coins tossed by the passengers - even today.
As your departing ship passed Waikiki, it was custom to throw your flower lei into the swells. If it floated towards the verdant shore you could expect to return once more to these magic isles.

Ganesh arrived safely!

"Best be yourself
imperial, plain
and true!"

Elizabeth Barret Browning

Which green would YOU choose?


"Show me a man who claims he is objective
and I'll show you
a man with illusions."

Henry R. Luce


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On yesterday's post,
friend Dinesh Chandra left me this comment:

"Hi good pictures great blog to read, great post
how r u, say something about u.
regards
dinesh chandra"


So today I want to say something personal,
something about me.

I been crying in my car today.
This morning I drove out of Honolulu,
up the Pali,
over the Ko`olau Mountains
to the windward side
of Oahu.

The mists arose from the forested hills.
Hawaiian music played on my radio.
On this day I would accomplish many
every-day tasks.

And I would do them with the help
of people I love,
on an Island I love.

My eyes filled with tears
for all the good
that pours down on me
everyday.

Overcome with gratitude,
eyes filled with beauty,
a heart bursting with Aloha,
I drove and drank
in the treasures of the day.

My blog was off making friends.
When I got home
I marveled at this
friendship
you & I have discovered.

Today I cried in my car.
Cried for joy,
cried my thanks.

That's something about
me, Dinesh.

And I thank you
EACH
most sincerely
for spending some of your precious
life
here with me.


Bless You! cloudia

Always With Us

Aloha,
Inter-Species Friends!


clickity!

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words
but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"”

Winnie (the) Pooh

“If ever there is tomorrow when we're not together,
there is something you must always remember.
You are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
But the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. i'll always be with you.”
Winnie (the) Pooh

Stolen from a great blog. Yours?



“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest
waiting for others to come to you.
You have to go to them sometimes.”
Winnie (the) Pooh

Stolen from another cool blog. Thanks fellow blogger!

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In the infancy of humankind
the other creatures
were our companions-
not merely our prey,
or threat.


They taught us much.
We clothed our gods
in their forms.
We emulated them
in ceremonies, yoga, and kung fu.



In each of our childhoods
the animals were there:
The crib companion
(dear Teddy Bear)
household pets,
fascinating insects,
patient farm animals,
and always the birds in public.


Still their stories
touch and teach us.


Thank you dear Charlotte,
Winnie,
Big Bird.

ALOHA, cloudia

Just Thinking

ALOHA, Friend!

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please click on the photos

The world is so much more basic and mundane than I ever realized;
and so much more magical.

We are all veterans of something. . .

Often it is the ways we don't fit in,
the things that don't go smoothly,
that lead us to the real treasures
of this life.

Emotions are like weather.
Sometimes storms just
arise. . .


Glad that we are in it
together!

Warm Aloha, Cloudia

Happy Sunday

Aloha Sunday,

Friend!

Did You SPRING ahead
to Daylight Savings Time?

(Steady, parts of Indiana! We know you don't Spring or Fall in time.)

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Hawaii remains (as always) in Hawaiian Standard Time.
New York City is now 6 hours ahead of me.
7 AM HST = 1 PM Eastern Daylight Savings

Click on the photos

"When I feed the poor,

they call me a saint;

when I ask why they are poor,

I'm called a communist."

Anonymous South American Priest

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures

from the shelter of compassion and pity,

you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."

- St. Francis of Assisi

"As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart;

A thousand hands will naturally come to your aid;

As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart;

You will reach out with a thousand hands to help others."

Dr. Sha

Thank You for taking your time to visit Da Spiral today!

cloudia

BONUS:

Honolulu Walk

Aloha Friend!

Let's Walk Around

Honolulu Today

and Look at all the Tall Buildings

Click on the buildings to see them grow!

"In the depth of winter,

I finally learned

that within me the lay

an invincible summer."

Camus

"People in the West are always getting ready to live."

Chinese proverb

"If you constantly think of illness,

you eventually become ill;

if you believe yourself to be beautiful,

you become so."

Shakti Gawain

It's a good time for a fresh look at what we value; not with our words, but in our day to day actions.

We post-moderns have gained much materially, but we have surrendered lots of the real texture, flavor and meaning of life.

Now the spell of "more & more" seems to be melting away.

But the things left standing are the real life treasure:

a warm bed, a healthy body, family & friends,

a quiet moment to contemplate the night sky,

while riding the earth as it ticks off time in seconds and in ages. . .

Sure there will always be day-to-day details,

but we've seem to have taken our eyes off of the treasure

to specialize in details, and we have become dull.

As I go about renegotiating the values in my life

a passage comes to mind:

"They shall mount on eagles wings."

This is a heroic cliche` of an image to someone who lived in a city.

But once I got to Hawaii and watched the IO, the red tailed Hawaiian Hawk, circling over the Big Island, what I saw was a bird going around in circles. They don't fly straight to the heights like a superman, or a rocket. No. As in a flying meditation they retrace the same circumscribed repetition in the sky. Over and over. But I noticed something else too: each circuit takes them imperceptibly higher and higher till they are friendly with the snow covered tropic mountain, Maunakea, and conversant with the clouds and early moon.

Finally, their view is unrestricted.

Stress and striving don't buy them that view.

They attain it by following their true nature.

Perhaps the groaning of the world economic system

will lead us to lives of paradoxical richness?

But just for right now: go outside into nature.

(after you leave your comment ;-)

Play with a child, pet, or childlike adult who you know well,

or just this moment met.

Stop and breathe and go to your heart.

All the answers you need are there patiently waiting.

I've found that stress defeats itself.

Believe me: the experiments were exhaustive and went on for years!

So take it from me: Walk the gentle path . . .

and you may just find yourself spiralling into control. . . effortlessly. Mounting on the wings of your grateful heart.

A L O H A! Cloudia

Me in the Mirror?

It's

Aloha Friday

in

Waikiki

Click on photos to widen your eyes

We sail on the tide.

"The only joy in life

is to begin."

Cesare Pavese

"Our lives teach us who we are."

Salman Rushdie

"Heirlooms we don't have in our family.

But stories we've got."

Rose Chernin

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What happens

when a vampire bites you?

That's right:

you become a vampire too.

And when zombies attack

they turn you

into one of them.

Back in the day

when country rubes

were sold the Brooklyn Bridge

(dreaming of the tolls they'd collect)

the only way

to make it pay

was to sell it to some

newer rube.

Yes,

we oft become

what conquers us;

They say that

we come to

resemble our enemy.

So what rules are you enforcing,

that were unhappily forced

on you?

And what did you hate

that now you perpetuate?

What is it you swallowed whole

that now you wish

you never ate?

Be happy friend

and celebrate,

the spell is broken:

A mere disguise

and not your

fate.

ALOHA, cloudia

Homey's Town(s)

ALOHA, Friend

Welcome

to

Thursday in

WAIKIKI

V>

Click! Click and put your back into it!

Let's turn down the shouting, and turn up the honesty

"It is a general popular error

to imagine the loudest complainers

for the public

to be the most anxious

for it's welfare."

Edmund Burke

Grainy World of City Night

"Victory is sweetest

when you've known defeat."

Malcolm Forbes

Fake it till ya 'make it' if ya have to!

"Self confidence

is the first requisite

to great undertakings."

Samuel Johnson

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I have never been to Paris,

Vienna, Rome, or Jerusalem.

London I carry inside my words;

New York was there

when I needed her.

Philadelphia

is my

essence-elphia,

Honolulu

my home town.

San Francisco, city on a hill,

the one that got away.

Re-tasting these names of cities

evokes the Candy Graces:

Salt & Sweet.

The flavours of my

life.

ALOHA, my Friends! cloudia