In It Together. . .

"Shared pain is no longer paralyzing."

- Henri Nouwen

"Everyone who enters our life becomes a part of us and we become a part of each of them. We are all the same stuff; we are interrelated; we are inseparable. We experience mutuality all the time."

- Douglas C. Smith

"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."

- Pema Chodron

It seems that we live in interesting times. Please turn off the news. Please remember to stop, and to breathe deeply. Stop. Pause. Inhale. Exhale. If this suggestion is irritating, then you really need to do it ;-)

Being in the moment isn't about "winning" over thought. All you need is closer than you think, relaxation invites wisdom. Mental effort defeats itself. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." This doesn't mean that the 'end' is near: it was written thousands of years ago. No. It means that if you can pause from the movie of your life and your thoughts long enough, you will begin to see that "heaven" is within your reach. If you will, you can remake your life. Do you dare to be happy while others panic? Well, for one thing it is reassuring to everyone to be around a calm presence. Don't just 'do' something. Stand there and notice the beauty all around you. Life goes on. No one gets out alive. We're all in it together.

Kinda cool, isn't it? So go out and VOTE!

A L O H A! cloudia

Peace of Mind. . .

"In my lifetime, I have lost my country and been reduced to being totally dependent on the goodwill of others. I have also lost my mother, and most of my tutors and gurus have passed away; although now I have a few new gurus. Of course these are tragic incidents, and I feel sad when I think about them. However, I don't feel overwhelmed by sadness. Old familiar faces disappear, and new faces appear, but I still maintain my Happiness and peace of mind."

- The Dalai Lama

The Chinese word for 'crisis' means both danger and opportunity. Every wound, every broken place carries opportunities: for us to gain some new understanding, and also for that new wisdom to impact the lives of others. As a hospice volunteer I learned much from the dying. Much about what really matters in life: the value of touching, the meaning of love. They taught me about really seeing, really hearing, really listening, about the precious gift of TIME. 'Musts' & 'shoulds' have lost their power over me a little. The world is so much more than we can see and touch. I have learned that healing comes from wounded healers. I no longer seek perfect people, or to be a perfect person. All healing involves mutual healing. In respectfully receiving, we give. In respectfully giving, we receive.

"We all contain within our hearts that love which is for the healing of the nations. What we lack is the courage to start giving it away." - Cassidy

Aloha to you, reader! Cloudia

I'm RIGHT!

"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy." - Robt. Louis Stevenson









"Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace." - Elbert Hubbard

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Why is being "right" so crucial to us? Is it because we were punished as impressionable little-people for doing "wrong?"

Clearly the world is constructed of complexity, of layers, of degrees. View depends on perspective. So why are we SO compelled to imperil even our closest relationships; to suffer, kill and die for "what is right?"

It is "matters of principle" that get us the most unprincipled and unreasoning.

Good parents teach kids that life is often "unfair." Bad parents teach that life always or never is. Which is worse?
We are most effective when calm, so why do we feel a duty to be angry? To "not let them get away with it?"
Do YOU want to be RIGHT or HAPPY?

I Used To Live. . .

"A Bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain." - Robert Frost

"A fool's paradise is a wise person's hell."

- Thomas Fuller

"If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done." - Peter Ustinov

I used to live in the city, rushing everywhere, crowded, and busy. Rarely did I see an open space of nature. The sky was always framed by buildings, lights, and brick.

After work, I'd rest by my window. One afternoon I thought to myself: "The sunlight shining on my eyelids is the same sun that sparkles on the tropics. The thought stayed and took root. I imagined the sound of the ocean, listened to soft music and relaxed. Soon I began to look forward to my daily Hawaiian vacation. People asked me if I had been away; something was different about me. I had a post-vacation glow. Soon I had it all the time. Traffic would back up and I'd simply remind myself that I'd soon be lying on the beach. . . Eventually. . . a seemingly mundane chain of events - by now I was open to them - brought me to Hawaii.

What you believe, what you expect, what you invest with emotion, will be attracted to you. Bob Marley said that angry people were saying prayers to the devil.

What are you creating in your world? It begins in your mind. Perhaps it's time to examine your unexamined "facts."

"We get so used to disguising ourselves to others that we end up becoming disguised to ourselves." - La Rochefoucauld

A L O H A ! ;-)

Personal Power. . .

" I'm not old enough to play baseball or football. I'm not eight yet. My mom told me when you start baseball, you aren't going to be able to run that fast because you had an operation. I told Mom I wouldn't need to run that fast. When I play baseball, I'll just hit them out of the park. Then I'll be able to walk."
~Edward J. McGrath, Jr., "An Exceptional View of Life"



"It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition we discover."

-Leonardo DaVinci

"There is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know."

- Ambrose Bierce


What road are you on? If you don't change course, you'll get where you're heading.



"If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."

-Anatole France



Where are your heading?

The subconscious is very literal. What we believe emotionally, it takes for truth and acts accordingly. Your subconscious regulates all the tiny and crucial functions of your cells and organs. If you always feel stressed and anxious, your subconscious and parasympathetic nervous system live in panic mode. Stress is designed to be a short-term solution to a problem NOW, like a charging lion. When you realize that relaxation is your optimum state, and make it a priority to care for yourself, insight arrives, health symptoms improve, you live more effectively. It's easy. Playing sports takes energy, concentration and involves stress, but the attitude of the players makes it fun. Listen to your heart. Have fun. Be patient with yourself and others. Play the game! A L O H A !!!!!!!!

Kolea Cool & Misty. . .

"Experience isn't interesting till it begins to repeat itself; in fact, till it does that, it hardly is experience"
-Eliz. Bowen, Irish Author

"Worldly wisdom teaches that it is better for your reputation if you fail conventionally, than if you succeed unconventionally."

-John Maynard Keynes,

"Great" economist, 1935

"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!." - Dorothy Gale

"There are no democratic or republican roads, or health care, or environment. There are only roads and health care, and we all breathe the same air." -Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Skinny Kolea (golden plover) have returned to our misty morning Waikiki lawns after their epic flight from Alaska. A fresh coolness is in the O`ahu air. Albatross who reportedly spends up to 10 years in flight is not impressed by Kolea's feat, but I am. The original "snow birds" will winter in the islands stuffing their beaks till it's time to return north. Cycles continue. . .
A Hawaiian Healing Kahuna tells the story of the woman brought to him suffering from extreme anxiety and depression. "What is bothering you?" He asked. She began talking about the world situation, terrorism, the economy..." He spent the day taking her to beautiful places on his island. At the beach he said: "Look, no bad news." At the pali (cliff) he showed her a peaceful windward side of the island. In the banana patch he showed her that no terrorists were crouching beneath the leaves. "Look at what is really right here," he told her. That night she slept soundly for the first time in years. One thought follows another. Psychologists call it "entrainment." But you don't need to ride that train. Just let it pull out of the station without you. . . The Seasons Are Changing Again!

Having A Past. . .

"Life is what happens while you're making other plans."

-John Lennon

"The future is murky. I Guess it's good to have a past."

-Paul Newman

Stopping to watch the sunset seems to settle and clarify the mind. Even the Hawaiian breeze, Ka Makani, knows that it is a good time to pause. Your day sweetens as the colors change. I'd like to think that maturity, the "sunset of life" will be like that.

Do you know the ledgend of the maiden who was directed to walk down the row of corn and to pick one, only one, ear? Right away she saw a good one, but she reasoned that a better one might be a few paces down the row. At the end of the row, she wished that she had chosen that first ear.

If you know where your next meal is coming from, if you have a home, if someone is glad to see you arrive, if you are NOT in #10 pain; then you are fortunate. Pause to notice all of life's gifts that we take for granted every day. Sunset is a good time to do that. Make your own beautiful memories. . . NOW. . . Aloha!