Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Waikiki

Aloha!  
    Let's Walk in Waikiki Together. . .




"Make love a stain upon your heart;
Spill your love on others
until they too are stained."

Anonymous Tibetan monk






Shell Ginger

"If you can sit with a rose, or any other blossom,
and 'be' with it's quiet presence,
you will smell the scent
of the spirit world
because you & I are one;
We've grown in this same space."

Oprah winfrey







"Kindness sets the heart free."






“This is my simple religion. 
There is no need for temples;
 no need for complicated philosophy.
 Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;
 the philosophy is kindness.” 

Dalai Lama






Today I went out walking between the raindrops.
Gentle mist acted like rain - but couldn't keep up the impersonation.

Patches of blue sky appeared.

Sunshine drew moisture from the grass.

Heaven & nature sing. 
Locals and visitors drink it all in.

Just another day-
in Waikiki.

Thanks for sharing it with me! Please leave a comment, cloudia

Monday, May 9, 2011

Eleven Year Old Warrior

fMâlô e lelei  -
That's Tongan for 'Aloha'


Courtesy:  FL Morris / fmorris@staradvertiser.com

Why?

What are YOUR eleven-year-olds doing?



"When 3-year old Hale Motuapuaka told his parents, 

“I want to be a fire man,”

they knew he wanted to play with fire,
not put it out.
Turning 11 a couple of weeks ago,
Hale is the youngest professional fireknife dancer in Hawaii, maybe in the world, performing two nights a week for Malu Productions at the Hale Koa Hotel. He says he is “really ready to light it up” to win at next weekend’s World Fireknife Championship at the Polynesian Cultural Center."  Mahalo to Honolulu Pulse

                     So, what do YOU think?   cloudia










Sunday, May 8, 2011

Opposite Day!

ALOHA means 'Goodbye'

As Well as 'Hello'

"Solitary trees,
if they grow at all, 
grow strong."

Winston Churchill






"I can see you are flawed.
You have not hidden it.
 That is your greatest gift to me."

Alice Walker




"Self development
is a higher duty
than self sacrifice."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton




"They say,

we're too old to play hide and seek...

but, if I were given a chance, 

I'd give anything just to hear someone say, 

'I found you!' "

 iiAngelie


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Our brains are marvelous.
Just like athletes know of the body,
the brain get's used to doing things a certain way
and conserves energy by doing it just that way.

Therefore, we can stimulate our brain
by doing things differently;
Brush your teeth with the "wrong" hand
and your brain will wake up and forge
new connections.

I work on a laptop
and my right elbo is complaining
about the repetitive use I must make
of the touch-pad & scroll buttons (up! & down!).

Well I've gone and gotten myself
a wireless mouse!

Now I'm clicking with the left hand,
plus I have a cool 'scrolling wheel.'

Living completely within our comfort zone
only comforts our way to decline.

Do simple things in a different way.

Stand on one foot.

Drive someplace a different way.

You can thank me later!

                     What do you say?  warmly, cloudia
 

Saturday, May 7, 2011

What is a "GO Bag?"

Aloha, Dear Friend!





A Rabbit



“The other day when I was walking through the woods,

I saw a rabbit standing in front of a candle

making shadows of people on a tree.”

 

 Stephen Wright








There he goes! (Nice tail)


"Humor can get in
under the door
while seriousness
is still fumbling at the handle."

G.K. Chesterton







Did you see that?


"Diseases of the soul are more numerous 
and dangerous
than those of the body."

Cicero






Just another day. . . in Waikiki.  (Glad Y O U stopped by :-)


"Perfect order
is the forerunner
of perfect horror."

Carlos Fuentes



<(=)>

Three times this year,
a tsunami warning,
my boat taking on water at 3:30 am,
and a TSUNAMI WARNING (!)
We have had to decide what's important.

What do you grab?
Valuables, monetary & sentimental.
Pets. Medications. Papers.
In the case of the tsunami,
you want to take food and simple
"neccessities" that may be in short supply
for some time, if the 'big one' hits.
After what happened in Japan. . .

(and believe me, Hawaii people
are close to the Japanese.
Every day here there is a fundraiser,
or another story
heartrending in it's pain
of what our friends and family
are enduring there.

Hawaii people have contributed
upwards of 3 million USDollars!
And many of us are over there helping.)
. . .So after a disaster like that,
or the flooding in the continental US,
one is grateful for dear normalcy
even if this is the normalcy:
  "normal."


What is your security blanket?
Your MUST HAVE?

Do you have a "Go Bag" with simple necessities
ready to grab and go?

Believe me, it's better to think before an emergency hits.

Personally, much less is now "necessary."

What do I actually need to be happy?

Our blogs are preserved "on the cloud"
Personal information and pictures
can all be stored there too,
courtesy of Google, Mozy and others.

I'm realizing that, beyond simple health, 
food, shelter, loved ones,
there is little  that is irreplaceable;

After all,
we shall lose "everything" eventually anyway.
You can't take it with you, right?

For me, this means that more of my security
comes from within,
from skills, and from hard won self-confidence too.

My "locus of control" has moved more inside myself
than outside.  That's a good feeling.

My husband marvels that I can give a REIKI treatment
with no equipment, just my hands.

I can provide comfort, pain relief and connection.

As long as I have a heart to think of those around me
I will not sink into despair.

Together we as a whole world are re-evaluating:
"What is necessary? What is truly desirable?"

I think we are finding exciting new answers
to those questions;
Answers that are actually quite old.

"Love one another." "Do unto others."
"True wealth is not material." 

I'm actually quite hopeful, this Arab Spring.

A million minds changed, 
and a thousand-year Berlin Wall fell.

What walls of separation will fall next? 

What is the world changing it's mind about?

Y O U
blogger, and blog reader,
are part of it!

                             Please leave us a comment!               cloudia

























Friday, May 6, 2011

High Wire

A l o h a !
 Welcome to Waikiki



 Emerging DRAGON!


Sometimes it feels like one's life - 
heck, the WHOLE world-
is doing a HIGH Wire act! 



Can you see the tightrope? ENLARGE!

 "A well-developed sense of humor
is the pole
that adds balance to your steps
as you walk the tightrope of life. "

William Arthur Ward







"Life is always a tightrope
or a feather bed.
Give me the tightrope. "


Edith Wharton





"Skill is successfully walking a tightrope
between the twin towers
of New York's World Trade Center.
Intelligence is not trying. "

Marilyn vos Savant



<()




Wandering around,
with my camera
and some paper 
to write on
connects me to others,
to real life outside of my head;
To sanity. 

What are the things
that help Y O U
to maintain your
Balance
&
Poise?
          Please tell us in 'comments' cloudia

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Riding the Mist

Aloha My Friends!


"First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus -
Crocus."

Lilja Rogers





"Now every field is clothed with grass,
and every tree with leaves;
now the woods put forth their blossoms,
and the year assumes its gay attire."

Virgil





"It's spring fever. 
That is what the name of it is.
And when you've got it, you want
- oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want,
but it just fairly makes your heart ache, 
you want it so!"

Mark Twain










"In springtime, love is carried on the breeze.
Watch out for flying passion
or kisses whizzing by your head."

Terri Guillemets








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Spring has come to Hawaii.
"What," you say,
"There are seasons in the islands?"
Oh Yes! 

Trees & plants in flower everywhere,
even more than usual.

Monday night was unusual
with thousands of lightning strikes
(no injuries or damage- just a great show).

"From what we could calculate
there were over 15,000 lightning strikes 
in a five hour time frame from 5-10 p.m. (Monday) statewide," 
said Meteorologist Tom Birchard, with the National Weather Service.

As if that wasn't interesting enough, two equally rare waterspouts
formed during the show
just off Honolulu
and danced a duet!

"We were watching it
and all of a sudden the tubes came down.
They started to form waterspouts
and then the waterspouts twisted back and forth,"
said California visitor Thayton Towner.



"It was gnarly. All I saw were two tornadoes
and all of a sudden -- they combined into one.
It felt hard core out there," said Honolulu surfer J.D. Walker. 


"We saw a smaller one form then a bigger one.
Then they started to converge and they crossed each other.
It was pretty crazy." Moiliili surfer Timo Tidwell told KITV News






"No, we stayed out there. We wanted to see what would happen.
Then the rain started to get super heavy and we couldn't see the waves -
- so we just came in," said Tidwell.

In just a matter of minutes the waterspouts weakened and disappeared
as the lightning storm raged on.

That WAS unusual weather!  

Yesterday teased with sun, then ambushed with rain-

But today I was able to get on my scooter
and ride through the breezes,
& sunny skies, 
while dramatic traveler clouds
punctuated the BLUE
with their steamy white and silvered pewter.


So much is going on in our world; 
so much to talk about.
Perhaps TOO much!


Ah, I just wanna ride on my scooter. . . .and eat good ice cream!  

Just fired up the computer
to say ALOHA to all my pals out there-

Now to go a visiting, to see how the season 
is treating all of YOU!  

Do You have Spring fever? Tell us about it!  cloudia





 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Thanks for the Problems

Aloha, Friend!





"You must give birth to your images.
They are the future waiting to be born ...
Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future must enter you long before it happens ...
Just wait for the birth ... for the hour of clarity."
 

Rainer Maria Rilke




"A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth.
The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water.
Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts." 
 
Sivananda




"A Jacaranda tree stands tall, and sways as if to say,
Look! At this magnificence, I’m wearing blue today.
forgive the way I shout aloud, my lack of modesty,
but nowhere in this troubled world is finery like me."
Ann Beard
 
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Thank you, God
For the problems

of a healthy,

active,

person. . .