God's Country

A L O H A!

Glad you made it. You like go holoholo?

(In Hawaiian, "holoholo" means

"leisurely journey")

Jus` jump in da car fo` some island cruising.

We stay going to Waimanalo.

Dey call it: "God's Country."

Stay Come - We GO!

Oh funny eh?

Waimanalo is pure country.

Hawaiians live there on Homestead lots, rich haoles (Caucasians/foreigners) have most of da beach front.

But Waimanalo Beach Park is a favorite camping area for all.

Locals call it "Sherwood Forrest" or Sherwoods."

Bellows Air Force Station is a military beachfront-recreational

(and training) area. Sometimes the Marines "take the beach" in amphibious vehicles.

"Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness."

Ray Bradbury

Almost there!

The road here is right by the sea. Shallow "flats" run out to the reef creating an idyllic protected bay.
This is the sunrise side of Oahu.




"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." St. Augustine

Look, rabbit island!





"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake.
The great affair is to move."
Robert Louis Stevenson

"I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog

to see the moon when it is full."

Lord Dunsany

We made it to Our Friend's back yard in Wamanalo.

Know what folks do in da back yard?

We grind (eat) and we bring out da instruments fo` play some music

Kanikapila style!

Check out Bruddah (below) he going talk Hawaiian fo` minute,

den goof around for a bit, but DEN he going sing some ono (delicious) falsetto fo` you!

From e-Hawaii:

"kanikapila (kani ka pila)(kah knee kah pee la)
Definition: literally defined, kani means sound and pila means any string musical instrument or to play music. Informally, it simply means to gather together and play music.

Used In A Sentence: We go kanikapila dis weekend.

In English: Why don’t we get together this weekend and play some music with each other?"

http://www.e-hawaii.com/pidgin/pidgin-english-words-starting-with-k

Glad you could make it ;-]

"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe."

Anatole France

Aloha! Cloudia

Sunset Beach

A L O H A!

Glad to See Y O U Today

Lets Walk Along Waikiki Beach at Sunset, shall we?

click on photos for bigger AH!

Dramatic Clouds Attend Diamond Head

(see the romantic couple?)

"Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet;

a happy marriage has the tranquillity of a lovely sunset."

Ann Landers

Parrot Guy Setting Up a Goofy Vacation Photo

"The true purpose of education is to teach a man to carry himself triumphant to the sunset."

Liberty Hyde Bailey

Everyone's looking at the sunset.
But I'm looking at THEM ;-]

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

Yogi Berra

Gotta get that perfect shot to take home to Tokyo!



"A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure,

experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia."

Unknown

This would make a good post card, eh?

"If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man

or woman,

I shall feel that I have worked with God."

Gilbert K. Chesterton

"Hope this comes out, Honey"

They won't believe it in Boise!

"For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm.

Or maybe into the sunrise - whatever appeals to you."

Krzysztof Kieslowski

"Let's just enjoy the moment, Dear."

"Cloud come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,

but to add color to my sunset sky."

Rabindranath Tagore



So glad you could join us today-

A L O H A! Cloudia

What's Going On

A L O H A!

Thanks For Coming Today ;-]

click on photos for immersion

“I like to think that the moon is there

even if I am not looking at it.”
Albert Einstein

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
Buddha

Oli fo'nu oko kpa ma gbaluka ebe. (Igala)

"When a tree falls on a yam farm and kills the farm's owner, you don't waste time counting the numbers of yam hips ruined." (English)
Igala (Nigeria) Proverb





""Cogito ergo spud"[I think, therefore I yam]"
Herb Caen

"Progress might have been all right once,

but it's gone on too long."
Ogden Nash

"Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?"
Stanislaw Lee

" The major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur."
- Alfred North Whitehead




So many self-appointed social commentators and religious types seem to start from the assumption/premise that our first instinct is to do bad.

In fact our entire economy is supposed to be powered by avarice,

though I see avarice mostly being hoarded by the

fortunate few,

like more and more of EVERYTHING seems to be.

I believe that society actually functions

(mostly without noticing it)

because of a timeless reservoir of human goodness

and fairness.

Unfortunately, this crucial (if unappreciated) ingredient

seems to be peaking like oil, and is just as much an

imperilled resource.

Our "mind your own business & care for your family while trusting the social contract" mentality has been shaken more deeply than our spending habits. Aren't the "good guys" who play by the rules supposed to be OK in the end?

Our leaders are followers of the worst elements,

and have become deluded

that what's comfortable and usual for them

serves us all - which it abundantly doesn't.

President Obama is calling for "rules of the road"

in the "winner takes all" demolition derby

that we call our economy.

This is being accomplished in many incremental ways

which is JUST what terrorizes those

benefiting so handsomely from the status quo.

So now they are riling up and scaring the citizenry.

Don't they know that they are playing with fire?

"But you and I, we've been through that

and that is not our fate.

So let us not talk falsely now

the hour is getting late."

A L O H A!

Honolulu Contrasts

A L O H A!

You are welcome, Friend!

click on photos for all the usual reasons Yes, Honolulu is still growing.

It's a great place, Honolulu. We're certainly lifting its face for it. Give us another year and we'll make it look like Pittsburgh."

J P Marquand

But steps away from where I took the top photo,

this bunch of bananas is growing. . .

"Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu ... It is a typical western city ... It is the meeting place of East and West, the very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected, you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these strange people live close to each other, with different languages and different thoughts; they believe in different god and they have different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And somehow as you watch them, you have an impression of extraordinary vitality."

W. Somerset Maugham in 1921

. . . in this tiny garden surrounding a dumpster

at Ala Moana Shopping Center's parking lot.

"The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it. Every step revealed a new contrast - disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. . . I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India ... I moved in the midst of a summer calms as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden . . ."

Mark Twain on Honolulu

Of course, there are always different ways

to perceive the same realty.


"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods, or through injury to feelings. These were the only sins."

Max Freedom Long

Is that ethos OUR reality?

A L O H A! Cloudia

Saturday Morn

It's

A L O H A

Saturday!

click on photos for an extra dose of exultation.

No Charge

"There are moments of calm even at my busy beach.

Weekday mid-mornings remind me of the Waikiki of the 1950's."

Ted Trimmer Photo & Quote

From Kualoa, on Oahu's Windward Side,

you can see Mokapu (above).

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."

Oscar Wilde

It is a peninsula now utilized by Kaneohe Bay

Marine Corps Airstation.

(Next stop Afganistan. Kaneohe marines are in the thick of it.)

Locals call Mokapu "The Turtle."

Kapu means "set apart" "Sacred" "keep out."

A Mo`o (Moe-Oh) is a mythical Hawaiian creature akin to a dragon.

They are reported to be very wise and powerful.

Perhaps a "Mo`o Kapu" lived at this place of power.

"Breakfast time is better than any other moment of the day.

No dust has settled on one's mind then, and it presents

a clear mirror to the rays of things."

George Elliot,

Adam Bede

He has the same facial expression as the Sphinx!

"No man knows until he has suffered from the night

how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be."

Bram Stoker,

Dracula

Friends, in the spirit of supreme Saturday laziness,

I leave you with this:

"There is really nothing you must be

And there is nothing you must do

There is really nothing you must have

And there is nothing you must know.

There is really nothing you must become.

However,

It helps to understand that fire burns,and when it rains,

the earth gets wet . . .

What's good about today is the willingness to open our minds and hearts."
Robert Fulghum,

(Author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.)

In Honor of the New Year:

(moderate your volume- loud!)


Fondly, A L O H A ! Cloudia

Some JuJubes

A L O H A !

Come in

click on photos to be well & truly

Jujubee-ed

Some think of beauty when they think of JuJube.

"Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty - they merely move it from their faces into their hearts."

Martin Buxbaum

Some people think of this tree when they hear the name.

“Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Some folks are used to seeing jujubee this way.

“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”
Groucho Marx

Maybe some are even old enough to remember this Jujube!

"The memory of things gone is important to a jazz musician.

Things like old folks singing in the moonlight

in the back yard on a hot night or something said long ago.”
Louis Armstrong

This is what came to mind...when I heard Jujube. . . until. . .


“I like vending machines, because snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at the store, oftentimes I will drop it so that is achieves its maximum flavor potential.”
Mitch Hedberg



“Candy Is dandy, But liquor Is quicker.”
Ogden Nash

But this is my little Jujube.

*"JuJubee!!!!!"*

(In a silly, high pitched cat voice)

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Wedded Bliss

A L O H A

So Kind of YOU to Visit ;-]

(are you with the bride or the groom's side?)

click on photos to enlarge your eye

“I found that dance was key to keeping depression out of my life.

When you dance, things just go away, things don't seem so bad.

There's no better way to take care of health

than through something as joyous and beautiful as dance.”

Patrick Swayze

Farewell, sweet man!

Moanalua Valley by Ted Trimmer

"Somewhere the Sky touches Earth,

and the name of that place

is the End."

African Proverb

"Women Hold Up Half of the Sky."

John Lennon & Yoko

"It is impossible to persuade a man

who does not disagree-

but smiles."

Muriel Spark

Where have we seen this before?

"We have the greatest pre-nuptial agreement in the world.

It's called love." Gene Perret

"Love one another and you will be happy.

It's as simple and as difficult as that."

Michael Leunig

Well Hello there!

It's a huge privilege to be asked to conduct a wedding ceremony.

This is a day that they will remember all their lives;

But no pressure.

Everyone's nervous to get it PERFECT!

And if there's a professional photog it's a "shoot" first.

I have seen photogs run sweating couples up and down the hot beach "one more time" too many times.

But gotta get that perfect picture! (eh bloggers?)

The day belongs to the couple.

I try to be a calming, reassuring, down-to-earth influence, but completing the State's official paperwork always makes me sweat.

I have learned to ask some pertinent questions, because people ASSUME that a ceremony will contain elements that they are used to.

Are there rings? Do you have vows, or something else you want to say or recite?

If they are a same-gender couple, I tell them that as the day's representative of Church, I apologize to them for any misguided rudeness, or abuse they have suffered at the hands of "the church." That is not the Spirit that I know.

As a resident of this State, I apologize that their marriage will not be a legal entity - no matter how true, alive, or lovely it may be. But I assure them that this ceremony of their will & surrender WILL render them truly truly soul partners. Powers & Principalities honor them this day, even if the legislature hasn't caught up yet.

I welcome the humans, the Aina (land) Lani (Heavens) Kai (Sea) and all the spirit of Aloha that animates these isles.

After that, each ceremony is different.

Sometimes folks contact me later to tell me that they were happy with the ceremony - or even that they felt "something" that moved them. I am grateful that the "magic" happened. It comes through me - not from me.

Last night my favorite husband remarked how strange it is that two willing people who have obtained a marriage license are LEGALLY married simply because I declare it so.

"It takes time and lawyers and thousands of dollars to get a divorce." He said. I had to agree; it is mysterious, wonderful, and an awesome responsibility!

Mostly, what I bring is humility. I have learned to get out of my own way and "Mach Show" as the Germans say, to become the role I am playing.

A wedding ceremony is one of those times in life when we feel the winds of eternity ruffling our hair, raising goose bumps (or "chicken skin" as we say in Hawaii).

Yesterday, I shared a wonderful truth that I have learned with the bride:

"When he looks at your face in 20 or 30 years, what he will see is your beauty on this day."

I also share with couples a foundational truth of my own marriage: that it rests on a disagreement.

My husband thinks that it's All About Me.

I know that it's All About Him.

We agree to disagree on this.

And count ourselves blessed.

That's what I wish for yesterday's newlyweds.

(and for you!)

May we all enjoy the produce of our own gardens.

That's where the real nourishment comes from. . .

A L O H A! Cloudia