Saturday, October 10, 2009

In This Life

A L O H A
and Welcome to A Nice Beach Day here at Waikiki
click on photos for free sunblock

"One of the advantages of being disorderly

is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."

A. A. Milne



Not much going on today....we're listening to a song...




Thanks for visiting. Please look in tomorrow
for something special!

Go with Aloha, Friend Cloudia

Friday, October 9, 2009

Come, Let's Fly

A L O H A,


Friend!



YOU are welcome, Come In



photos on the click!
Would YOU rather be an immortal, imposing image of a bird
or a tiny, tremulous, burbling, living, bird?

"Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray,
With joyous musick wake the dawning day."
Alexander Pope


Pretty - Poised - Patient


"Birdes of a feather will flocke togither."
Marcus Valerius Martial

One Little Boy in a Crowd


“The God to whom little boys say their prayers
has a face very like their mother's"
James Matthew Barrie


Do you still dream of flying?
Do you still consider strapping on some wings,
or a cape,
and running full speed
down the leaf-covered hill?




Are the birds your friends
whisperings secrets
of love
just to you?




Does your heart soar
and plunge
while whily wind
whoops
promising freedom
and speed?




To swim, to fly, to dance;
casting your fancy to capricious Gyre's chance.
Something it is - called the essential
"You"
that longs
not to leave this earth
but to kiss it from the
Blue. cloudia




Inspired by one of my favourite Poets:




Flying
by Richard Wilbur




Treetops are not so high
Nor I so low
That I don’t instinctively know
How it would be to fly

Through gaps that the wind makes, when
The leaves arouse
And there is a lifting of boughs
That settle and lift again.

Whatever my kind may be,
It is not absurd
To confuse myself with a bird
For the space of a reverie:

My species never flew,
But I somehow know
It is something that long ago
I almost adapted to.

Aloha.
You & I are birds of a feather! Cloudia

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Never Say "Aloha"

A l o h a
to Each of
Y O U!



click on photos for pleasure
Indigenous Taiwanese Dancers TWIRL!


“Let us read and let us dance - two amusements
that will never do any harm to the world.”
Voltaire



“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute.
THAT'S relativity.”
Albert Einstein


Spiral proclaiming itself!

Have you noticed it's infiltation of the culture?




"He drew a circle that shut me out --

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle that took him in."

Edwin Markham





The Hawaiians of old
never said "Aloha"
by itself.





"Aloha Kakou - Love inclusive to all of us.
How are we all doing?"





"Aloha Kakahiaka Kakou -
How are we all
this morning?"





"Aloha Kaua - Aloha to we two;
how are we doing?"




Aloha is always inclusive and comprehensive.

<>< ><>





It is said that the Hawaiians of old
recognized a kindred spirit
in Jesus' words.




Thus adopting a Jewish brother
and their own religion
in "becoming"
Christian.





They forgave the gruff
and logical missionaries
who radiated condescension
and constraint.





The Hawaiians
in Christian patience
waited for them
to actually live
the religion they
professed.





Warmth & Inclusion to YOU, my friend.
How are WE today?

Cloudia

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

How to Become

A L O H A!


Waikiki Welcomes YOU-




click on photos to raise mojo
"Our pain doesn't come from the love we weren't given in the past, but from the love we ourselves aren't giving in the present. Salvation is only found in the present. Every moment we have the chance to change our past and our future by reprograming the present."




"We create what we defend against."



"We chose the patterns, however mistakenly, and He will not force us to give them up."
All quotes today: Mariane Williamson



Even though I lived through it, it still amazes me how completely my life has changed.



I find it breathtaking even now, how completely daily experiences mirror habitual thoughts. Shakespeare wrote that "Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so." I have learned though hard experiment that this is merely a statement of bare fact.



Make no mistake.
It takes fearless commitment to face our thought habits.
They appear so self-evident, so obvious, that we never even notice them - they are the air we breathe: invisible.
We never stop to realize that there are alternative ways to respond to any situation. We keep responding the same way, over and over again, proclaiming: "That's just the way I am" all the while forgetting that it's just the way we've always been (up to now) as we keep hoping for a better outcome from our same in-put. "This time will be different," we tell oursleves, but somehow it never is.




Repeating nice affirmations will not help, if your gut is smirking and dis-affirming each one. We can not butt heads with habit. It's head is much, much harder. We must disrupt it's power through the unexpected. To change our energy, our responses, disguises us, and ultimately forges a new intentional identity.
Out of such mysterious change a space is created, where new growth can bring forth shoots. Soon it becomes beautifully clear how we daily experience pretty much what we expect to. You begin to comprehend the subtle cause & effect between your attitude, behavior and the world you inhabit. Change yourself, change the world. Think of the power in this! Expecially as more and more of us liberate ourselves from the "same old thing."




It turns out that people really do know subconsciously how you think and feel about them. We "read" each other all day long. Victims will find willing victimizers unerringly. This graciously presents each with the very opportunities each one needs to work through these issues along the way, and to make other choices. Once we thus come to become ourselves more deeply, we no longer require such lessons, and somehow they cease to show up in our life.




Seeing and being newness,
in ourselves and in our lives,
is the only way to change positively.



And don't forget that change is inevitable.




I have come to enjoy focusing on the daily bounty.
To me the inevitability of change, or endings, only makes today the more exhilarating and glittering. I no longer waste time fearing future, or lamenting the past. Either is a waste of time, a sacrilege in the face of glories too oft obscured by such unworthy considerations.




Attitudes and lives can change - just ask me: a former anxious depressive hanging on day to day. But a dragon guards this treasure's way. He holds a mirror, and only the courage to see yourself, and to grow, will get you past the fear.





A L O H A Friends, Cloudia

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Vertical Evacuation

A L O H A !
Welcome Back to Waikiki, Friend!
clickity click click click on the photos!Those hills would seem far away
if I was stuck in a panic traffic jam
trying to beat a tsunami inland!

"A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward."
Jean Paul Richter
Some might just give up and grab a Primo, Hawaii's beer.
But there is another solution.
Have you guessed it?



"Fortune does not change men, it unmasks them."
Suzanne Necker
Paddlers carrying their canoe. In the windshield glare it looks like
they are carrying a blur.



It's called "Vetical Evacuation."
Going above the third floor in a solid, modern building
should render one an observer (rather than a victim) of a
tsunami here in Waikiki.
Mom lives on the 20th floor (mountain side) of a cement pile called The Waikiki Banyon.
With modern warnings here in Hawaii,
there should be plenty of time for me to get up there
and to start bickering over the TV news channel to watch.


Of course, she'd have first call on the bathroom!


Meanwhile, our Hawaii Air National Guard has made numerous flights to Samoa bringing medicine, food, & supplies.

Look around you.
If your world is in Normal Chaos
instead of Disaster
count yourself Blessed.

Your visits are certainly a blessing to me!

Thank you, Friends.

A L O H A! Cloudia

Monday, October 5, 2009

Thank YOU Bloggers

A L O H A
Friends!
click-da-photo :)
Palm Shadow Path



“There are no foreign lands.
It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
Robert Louis Stevenson






Pink Pleasure




“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again;
we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”
Jack Kerouac





What's Over the Next Hill?
Ted Trimmer Photo



“A journey is like marriage.
The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”
John Steinbeck





“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel
until he comes home
and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” –
Lin Yutang



Mahalo, Danke, Merci, Salamat, Kahmsamneda, Arrigato. . .




Thank YOU, Bloggers
for taking my far-seeking mind
winging around this world
to land in your own distinct neighborhoods.




You show me real life
that tourists never meet.
For I live in the Shangri la
of Hawaii's magic realm:
Waikiki,
and fear that-
should I leave-
some rift in reality,
terrorism,
financial collapse,
could prevent my homecoming;




So I remain here.
And should the cleft
of sky & sea
heal over,
I'll be safely here:
Sealed in Island intimacy.




So
Thanks EACH of You
for showing me
a world apart
of hearts
that are close.
A L O H A, Cloudia

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Recuperating From Saturday

A L O H A!
What a Saturday It Was!
You're gonna want to click on photos :) Lions Being Brought to Life! They are watching
the Dragon chase the pill of immortality.



This thrills me anytime, anywhere.
Happy Autumn Moon Festival.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. . .




Uusually I'm driving past.
But yesterday I had time to really LOOK
at Makiki Christian Church (See yesterday's post for info).






Why look at this ornate interior.


But the festival was outside; Here I come!



"It's no accident that the church and the graveyard stand side by side. The city of the dead sleeps encircled by the city of the living."
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider



These folks are proud to make Andagi (Japanese donuts)
just like grandma used to make.
They ran out early;
luckily I got one of the last bags :)



I didn't even know that the church had a courtyard,
but it was full of food &
fun yesterday!



"Cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them."
Robert Henri


Then I went to the Splendor of China Trade Show & Festival
just a few blocks away.


I was JUST in time to see the lions brought to life to dance and open the event. (Top photo)


Great timing again, blog girl!




















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

After which, I crossed King street to Thomas Square to
attend the InterTribal Pow Wow just in time to catch this
Wolf Dance by the Suquamish People of Alaska.





Your visit today is so very appreciated. . .
But I need to lay down for a while now.
L O L :)
A L O H A! Cloudia