Saturday, November 28, 2009

ALOHA Saturday

It's ALOHA Saturday
in Waikiki
and YOU are most welcome!




click on photos for all the usual reasons

"Self is the only prison that can ever bind the soul."

Henry van Dyke




"If we are to achieve results never before accomplished,
we must expect to employ methods never before attempted."
Sir Francis Bacon





"The pedigree of honey
Does not concern the bee;
A clover, any time, to him
Is aristocracy."

Emily Dickinson


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Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.




Naomi Shihab Nye



ALOHA, cloudia


Friday, November 27, 2009

The Shopping Season

ALOHA, Friend
&
Welcome Back to WAIKIKI

click on photos, eh?
Royal Hawaiian Vista




"A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning,
as if supported by the rays of the sun,
a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee,
joy accompanied me as I walked."
Anais Nin




Walking Man's Hula Lesson

"For me, the vast marvel is to be alive.
For man, or for flowers or beast or bird,
the supreme triumph is to be most vividly and perfectly alive."
Al Purdy










“Education is a kind of continuing dialogue,
and a dialogue assumes different points of view.”

Robert M. Hutchins



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Ah, "Black Friday!"
Consumerism run riot.
Some commence a season of
hurry;
others of us
simply enjoy this annual
respite from the ordinary.

Whatever your day holds,
take a moment
to pause
and look at where you've come.

Congratulations!


ALOHA,
cloudia

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

ALOHA
&
Happy Thanksgiving to
Y O U
from
WAIKIKI



click on photos for a deeper look
A time for family. . .


"There would be no society
if living together depended upon understanding each other."
Eric Hoffer





"Most men know what they hate,
few know what they love."
Charles Caleb Colton


Getting ready for the holidays at the Sheraton Waikiki



"In the sick room, ten cents' worth of human understanding
equals ten dollars' worth of medical science."
Martin H. Fischer


Wishing you a contented holiday!



A L O H A, cloudia


Wednesday, November 25, 2009

A Stroll

ALOHA, Friend

Welcome to Wednesday in Honolulu

click on photos gently
Welcome to Wednesday in Honolulu

Let's take a stroll through local history. . .
just off busy King St.




"It is such a secret place, the land of tears.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery






"I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.”


Amy Tan






“To leave a place is to die a little”

French Proverb







“Write injuries in sand, kindnesses in marble”

French Proverb



"With Jesus in Heaven"






"Killed by Automobile"


"Ask yourself: Have you been kind today?
Make kindness your daily modus operandi
and change your world."
Annie Lennox


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It can be very peaceful visiting with the people
who built our Hawaii of today.


They still have lasting lessons to teach us.



Hawaiians, Portuguese, Diplomats, Americans, Tahitians,
Royalty and Religious. . .



All together here as in life.




Thank you for all you did!
There is no place like Honolulu, my home.



ALOHA, cloudia

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Flying Fish

ALOHA Friend

Welcome to Tuesday in Waikiki




click on photos for Hawaiian Flair
"The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom."
Jon Stewart




view from da bar


"A stout heart breaks bad luck."

Cervantes




you can see my reflection!





"The ocean refuses no river."
Sheila Chandra




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Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Last evening at dusk
I was in my kayak
contemplating
the enormity
of the moment
when
suddenly
a school of silver fish
took to the air
and flew before me in an arc!

Wish you could have been there,
but I thought of
you.



ALOHA, cloudia

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Sunday Visit

ALOHA
to
Y O U

Welcome to Sunday In Waikiki



click on photos if you wish to enter


"In the end what people notice most
is whether we are paying attention to them and whether we make a commitment."
Nick Corcodilos





Gem


"Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education"
Chuang-tzu



Paging Count Basie!




"Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you."
Maori Proverb


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Thanks for visiting today.
May your Sunday be a gift.



ALOHA, cloudia

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Lions & Mummers

A L O H A

To <:> YOU

It's Saturday in Honolulu




Another Glorious Day




Can you smell the holidays?
Thanksgiving approaches
then the Season really gets rolling.

But
Christmas, Hanukkah,
New Years, yes, even Kwanzaa

are just the lead-up
to my favorite season of all:
Lunar or Chinese New Year!

There's nothing like the sound of
gongs & drums from blocks away,
drawing me irresistibly:

LIONS!

Gung Hee Fat Choy,
y'all!







But what could make someone from back east
such a fan of big noise, and ecstatic festival?

Then it hit me:





The Philadelphia Mummers parade has been held (almost) every
New Year's Day since 1901.


There are four divisions:
Comic, Fancy, Fancy Brigade and String Band.

Comic division clubs lampoon modern day local and national political and social themes. . .


String Band division clubs wear elaborate costumes like the Fancy and Fancy Brigade divisions, and also drill and perform playing
saxophones, banjos, accordions, violins, bass violins, and percussion.


The clubs are made up of working guys who practice after work,
many are second, third, or longer generation in the Mummers.
Each clubs is a neighborhood institution indeed.
They are known for their unique sound,
and also for their
elaborate costumes of glitter, sequins and feathers ."




Of course,
the MOST important part of the tradition
is the
Mummer's Strut.
Every Philadelphian has it in their soul.
Here it is
with the iconic song:
Oh Dem Golden Slippers.




Yo! Aloha!
cloudia


more about the Mummers' History: http://www.suncoastmummers.com/mummers_history.htm