MTM: Let's Go Beach

Aloha & Welcome!

Courtesy of Clark Little (c)

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain

"You should not live one way in private, another in public."

Publilius Syrus

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

Anaïs Nin

Going to the Beach here in Hawaii

When you pull into a beach park among all the local folks who are spending their day off with their families do so humbly and with a good spirit. Easy does it. Remember: weekending families are not cultural exhibits or chamber of commerce employees

Regular folks work very hard simply to make it here, and they enjoy their weekend relaxation just as you do. Please understand that the closest beach is like the neighborhood’s living room, even though it’s “public.” Be laid back and you’ll probably meet some new people, or even be welcomed in inimitable Aloha style.

Offer to share your stuff first, like a juice to a child, or a slice of pizza to the guy sitting right next to you. I could recount many stories of visitors being invited to the baby luau, the wedding up the block at somebody’s house, given deeply personal tours, or even invited to stay over. Nice people do find each other, bad attitudes: just keep driving!

A L O H A! Cloudia

Musings of the Day

"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life."

P. D. James

"Its better to know some of the questions, than all of the answers."

James Thurber

"The Earth is the Cradle of the Mind -- but one cannot eternally live in a cradle."

Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky

The misty technicolor clouds are blowing over the mountains, blue heron, red sails in the sunset. . .

Ah, the simple joys of life;

Hot shower, cold beer, and warm welcome.

How can every evening be a routine, yet uniquely wonderful?

Guess they’re just like snowflakes. . . Remember snowflakes?

In Hawaii it’s OK to smile at others.

Everyone is beautiful here- but it’s from the inside.

In our tropical climate makeup runs, but true aloha just glows through your expression, your skin, and your face, like a light from within. . .

Happy Mother's Day, all of you beautiful mothers!


A L O H A! Cloudia

Uncle Diamond Head

Aloha & Welcome to Waikiki Olde and New

click on photos to enlarge Back in the day

“I love everything that's old, - old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine”
Oliver Goldsmith


Where did those hotels come from?

“I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on the beach?”
Philip Johnson


“Babies don't need a vacation but I still see them at the beach. I'll go over to them and say, 'What are you doing here, you've never worked a day in your life!'.”
Stephen Wright


Kalakaua Avenue is full of crazy drivers.
LOOK OUT TOONSIS!

Rocks have a lot of presence.

"Mana" (spiritual energy) resides within this small Pohaku

(rock) as well as in great Diamond Head.

D.H.'s REAL name is Leahi: "Brow of the Tuna."

British sailors discovered calcite crystals within the crater and believed them to be DIAMONDS! Hence the name, memorial to an illusion.

"And in fancy I am led

back to dear old Diamond Head

Honolulu I'll be comin` back again"

An old song.

To our visitors, DH is a famous visual emblem. But it’s so much more than that to us. For example, we use it to describe seasonal conditions: “Look! Diamond Head is so green!” (Lots of rain) or brown (lots of no rain).

To locals it’s not only about the visuals. Ole DH is like a beloved uncle that we playfully climb all over.

We enjoy walking, running, driving, gawking, biking, and unloading our surfboards on Diamond Head Road.

We hike the trails and enjoy the view FROM atop Diamond Head Lookout(his shoulders).

We sit on his lap: DH Park One and Park Two, green oceanfront enclaves made peaceful and private by their lack of parking. Brides are photographed here as limos hover.

At the foot of the cliffs, below Diamond Head Road, are intimate little beaches where naturists and meditators can be left in peace.

So you see, we locals don’t just SEE DH; we play with it, smell the flowers, hear the surf and enjoy the birds. At the right time of year it’s the perfect place for spotting whales as they spout and splash out to sea.

A lookout on Leahi watched for Kamehameha's fleet of war canoes and lit the warning signal fire. Today Diamond Head Lighthouse maintains her own stoic vigilance; As do the F.A.A. folks guiding air traffic from within the crater.

Even the tightly scheduled tour van groups that pull into the lookout seem to hush at the majesty of the vista, as their harried drivers relax for a smoke. It's the perfect spot to “watch the submarine races,” or simply to loose the grip of hours and minutes. . . Yes, Diamond head is powerfully evocative, a profile world-famous for almost two hundred years. Paws in the surf, a sphynx of protection for this healing beach. . . Waikiki.

A L O H A! Cloudia

Friday Fish Dance

Aloha & Welcome to Da Beach:

Waikiki!

click on photos to enlarge Ah! Another great beach day!

"The mellow sweetness of pumpkin pie off a prison spoon is something you will never forget."
Mitchell Burgess

What's that?

"The world is round; it has no point."
Adrienne E. Gusoff

Look, a group over there too!

"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly. I said I don't know."
Mark Twain

It must be. . .

“The Fish Dance”

It’s season again for the fish dance. Why just look at them!

Next time you are walking by the harbor, stop to check out the intricate maneuvers underway by dozens and dozens of fish.

The first time I noticed, I thought it was a flotilla of leaves on the water. Then I saw the do-si-do, the alaman left, the schools splitting into separating spirals.

Sometimes, fish are packed so close together that da guys in the middle are pushed partly up and out of the water. All together now!

What are they doing?
I don’t know.

But back when I was taken to see Nuryev dance at Lincoln Center I didn’t need a knowledge of ballet to be amazed by the way he hung in the air at the arc of an unbelievably high leap. Well these tilapia are just as absorbed and expert in their corps de ballet. Spawning? Eating? Hula competition judged by mantis shrimp? I just don’t know. Do you?

A L O H A! Cloudia

Life Aboards

ALOHA! WELCOME!

click on photos to enlarge Courtesy of Clark Little (c)

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."
Henry David Thoreau

“The very pink of perfection."
Oliver Goldsmith



New Docks, where never a boat has tied up.
This is the first night that the lamps are lit,

like a field of newly hatched fireflies!


“What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”

Crowfoot (Native American) Proverb

My husband's friend said: "Why not buy this boat?"

"What will I do with it?" asked my guy.

"You could LIVE on it!"

"Oh yeah, Cloudia would love that!"

And here my troubles began.

As a person, perhaps an artist, who has constructed my life from improvised materials I had to concede the logic of it. Especially here on this island of high rents and upstairs neighbors who might well be recent arrivals from a Pacific culture where it is customary for extended families of several generations to live and SING together - or worse: college students!

We would have privacy and quiet. That was 17 years ago (this September), two cats, a college degree, multiple jobs & careers, novel publication, birth of a blog, and several harbor masters ago. Where did the time go?

You can read about some of the amusing aspects of life afloat here:

http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2009/03/water-week.html

and here: http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2009/01/boat-living.html

But all in all, with another harbor inspection eminent (which will determine our continued tenure here in the Ala Wai) I face both the past and the future with gratitude for this life we've created.

While I perform MANY functions specifically related to this life (indispensable ones ;-) it is my husband's Kuleana to orchestrate, prepare for, and perform, the dance of inspection. Pukui & Elbert's Hawaiian Dictionary (the bible!) has a large entry for the word "Kuleana" reflecting it's importance in Hawaiian Culture. Some of the English synonyms that I find appropriate to this situation are:

Responsibility, concern, right, privilege, jurisdiction, affair, reason, function, justification, a small piece of land.

He has prepared well. We should perform safely and well. But the sea is it's own jurisdiction and a capricious one. A wind may come up, a rogue wave might rear, an engine could sputter. My home and refuge could lie on pounding rocks - ALL extremely unlikely, but the sea, and government bureaucrats have ways we might not always understand.

Meanwhile, every day at the end of a line seems precious. There will (after all) be an end to everything at some point. My feeling is one of gratitude for this dear life afloat on the sea of living. "Savor the moment" is not inane - it is the sum of wisdom. Last night, preparing for sleep, I reflected on this familiar old boat and familiar, sweetly broken-in life and conceived this:

Big Old Boat

like a grandmother's house

rocking in the sea of night

as we

in her bosom

dream and sleep tight.

So thanks to the shipwright

and thanks to the twain

who cuddle dry

in a hole in the sea

misted by moon kissed

rain. A L O H A! Cloudia

A Simple Stroll

Aloha Welcome!

Click on photos to enlarge "There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to; and that is, every now and then to be completely idle - to do nothing at all."
Sydney Smith

Shadow Play

"As the shadow follows the body, As we think, so we become."
Buddha

"Every doorway, every intersection has a story." Katherine Dunn

"Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing."

Camille Pissarro

History, beauty, sustenance, & aloha, all offer themselves freely under isle skies.

Here in Hawaii living a rich life is less about money than it is in most other places.

Sure, our visitors and we can find here all the things that money can buy (in abundance!) but Honolulu's real treasure is found in our environment, and in each other; it's about attitude, engagement and down-home enjoyment of all the cultures that make up our unique chop-suey island. . . the sorts of things you discover. . . when you're walki in Waikiki. A l o h a ! Cloudia

Cinco de Boy-O

Aloha! Thanks for Visiting Today!

Click on photos to enlargeToday the Carp Fly over Honolulu!

“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable."
Plato

Hawaiian Skies

"Einstein was a man who could ask immensely simple questions. And what his work showed is that when the answers are simple too, then you can hear God thinking."

Jacob Bronowski

A volunteer serenades visitors to Queen's Medical Center

"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it."

Jacob Bronowski

Punchbowl Crater Through a Window

(See the "flying saucer?" It is the reflection of a light fixture ;-)

"Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light."

- Albert Schweitzer

Aloha & Welcome to May fifth, Tango-no-sekku, the Japanese Boy's Day Festival that is also celebrated here in Hawaii. The 5th day of the 5th month has been the day to celebrate boys for centuries. Tango-no-sekku means: "First Day of the Horse" because the strength, stamina, and courage of horses symbolize masculine qualities that boys should emulate.

Another animal associated with boy's day is the carp. This powerful and determined fish is also regarded as a fitting example for boys. Dr. Freud might point out that the carp itself, long, cylindrical, and bold is a fitting representation of the most fundamental badge of manhood.

Girl's Day is celebrated with the display of dolls. Boy's day, too, has it's own characteristic dolls: armored samurai warriors; nonetheless, it is the colorful carp banners (koi-nobori) one for every boy in the family, flown from bamboo poles outside the home, that are the overriding visual characteristic of the holiday. The largest carp honors the oldest son, the smallest, the youngest.

Today, in Japan, May fifth is celebrated as Children's Day. But here in Hawaii we keep many old customs that the plantation workers brought with them. They intended to maintain their ethnic identities, but the magic of Hawaii has painted most every imported custom with our own unique qualities. So let's celebrate boys, carp, AND girls, as we continue to appreciate everything that makes our island home

unique.

A L O H A! Cloudia