Dancing Under Diamond Head

Aloha & Thank YOU for visiting today!

How did the future appear to you
when you were young?

What did you want to become?

Did you expect to be the sort
that they raise statues to honor?


Is your life today the life you foresaw?

John Lennon famously said that "Life is what happens,
while you are busy making other plans."

(Sort of: "Man proposes, God disposes.")


I think he was talking about more
than life's mere uncertainty,
and our smallness in the face of that. . .

This week,
I have had to do lot's of stuff
that prevented me from doing
the "important" stuff
that I wanted to do.
(Like visit more of your blogs!)

But I'm beginning to understand that whatever comes up
-LIFE!-
(even when it seemingly detracts and distracts)
always remains a gift.
THE gift.


The unplanned grants us insight and experience
that fills a deeper need;


Freeing us from our stale selves,

giving us what we didn't even know that we needed!

Zen masters knew all about this.

Ah!

Life is such a queer, dear dance.

At Bon season here in Hawaii
we dance with the generations,
young & old inviting those passed
to be with us again for a special time.

If you click on the song,
and then watch the video slide show as it plays,
You may feel deep emotion as you
muse on the puzzle of life, our plans,
and our relationships.

I did.

Couldn't WAIT to share this with YOU

Come Dance-

Visit Luke and see his professional quality pictures HERE

Missed You Guys!

Aloha!

What a crazy week I've been having.

Tomorrows post will knock your socks off, but I MUST check out YOUR blogs NOW - so here's my newest YouTube video just so you know I'm still around :)

PLEASE visit tomorrows post!

I'm exceedingly excited about it. . . cloudia

Crazy Clockwork

Aloha &

Welcome to the Playroom of My Mind!

. . . A Comforting thought. . .

We each think of ourselves as the "Average" or "Normal" person.

What we notice about others

is the way that they are different from us:

"That kid, some woman, an old guy, a funny accent."

The cool thing is

that our identify shifts and changes;

we get to play different roles

at different times.

We are the kid watching the adults,

we are the excited young bridal couple,

we look back with perspective

from the plinth our later years.

Our viewpoint shifts quite a lot over a life time.

Sometimes we feel exalted,

other times we feel small and insignificant

as the shadow of an insect

clinging to a wall. . .



Our lives are like an Orrery

Orrery:

"A clockwork model of the solar system"

We dance, we twirl and pivot; we change positions and relations to the other dancers.

Yet, there is meaning to discover - some order to it all. Or so we trust as we dance through space. Some of us are comets, never staying in any system for long, others fancy ourselves suns around which our families revolve. For all the cogs and turns, the revolutions (at last) come full circle. Beginning / Middle / End. Youth / Prime / Golden Hour. . .

Tick Toc (don't stop) What's special about today?

Holiday-ing

Little Honolulu shack under the rainbow


"You can make more friends in two months


by becoming interested in other people


than you can in two years by trying to get other people


interested in you.


-Dale Carnegie

Helicopter shot?
A little spirit house outside a Thai Restaurant.




"Ideas are like rabbits.


You get a couple and learn how to handle them,


and pretty soon you have a dozen."




-John Steinbeck.

Doogie Hawser



"We cannot hold a torch to light another s path


without brightening our own."


Ben Sweetland

Delicate red lines tease.



"Live in rooms full of light."


Cornelius Celsus



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The ancients loved their holidays
festivals
special periods
the KAPU
the carnival.

Going to the local parade
or better,
being in it
is the core of who we are.

Instinctively
it's understood
that life is a carnival
a special thing
too wonderful to confine
with an endless routine.

Holiday-ing speaks richly
to our vagabond souls
for whom life itself
is a party.

Enjoy YOUR day!

Flower Dance

Aloha, Friend!

No surf. . . .

“None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent


or commanding


except when he listens to this whisper


which is heard by him alone.”


Ralph Waldo Emerson

Treasures glimpsed around town



"Doing is a quantum leap from imagining."




Barbara Sher

Fun is almost always within reach!



"Life is a traveling to the edge of knowledge,


then a leap taken."



David Herbert Lawrence

Just the daily treasures one stumbles across here in Honolulu.
Thank YOU for dancing
with
me :)

Hope, Wonders

Aloha Friend-


Sing Along With Today's Song Choice!

Looking out my back window.
What will today bring?



“The story of my life is about back entrances,

side doors, secret elevators

and other ways of getting in and out of places

so that people won't bother me.”


Greta Garbo

AH!

Palestinian President Abbas, & Israel's Netanyahu at the White House
Best Wishes-
We hope for peace between the cousins!


"Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others
automatically puts the mind at ease.
It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have
and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter.
It is the ultimate source of success in life."

Dalai Lama


On our own we glitter….TOGETHER WE SHINE!
Mitra Sen

Peace brings the world together.
Aiishwariya Haran, age 9

Peace is inside all of us. We just need to share it.
Jacoba Barber-Rozema, age 10

Peace makes everyone smile.
Sonika Ramachandran, age 7

When there is love, there is peace.
Neil Wu, age 12

Peace means having friends around the world.
Eisa Hayashi, age 11

Hawaii's own BUGSY, the surf pug


When not surfing, skydiving, or appearing on Animal Planet,
Bugsy enjoys volunteering as a therapy dog at local hospitals.




Next up: Flying Pigs?


The world is full of wonder.

It's wonderful to share it

with YOU

Who Judges?

Which is the best religion?

Is there a judge up there keeping score?

"Whatever makes you more compassionate,

more sensible,

more detached, more loving,

more humanitarian, more responsive,

more ethical.

The religion that will do that for you is the best religion."


Dalai Lama via my pal Bishop Randolph Sykes

"See how nature -

trees, flowers, grass -

grows in silence;

see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...

we need silence to be able to touch souls."


Mother Teresa

"Creativity is contagious.

Pass it on."


-Albert Einstein.

Diamond Head Light, home of the Coast Guard Commandant





"A sensible man will remember

that the eyes may be confused in two ways -

by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light;

and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul."

Plato



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"There are two kinds of light -

the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures. "


James Thurber

The Land of ALOHA is a little less worthy of the name today.

The head of our local Republican Party sent around a letter to pastors (not Buddhist priests, rabbis, or Muslim clerics, not to mention Shinto, Taoist....well, you get the idea.)

-Anyway, this political operative advised the pastors as to who is and who isn't righteous in the upcoming elections! He urges them to Jesus triumphalism and even topped Keith Olbermann's Worst Person In The World:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I couldn't rest until I crafted one of my Letters To The Editor of a local paper. Here are excerpts from that letter:

Aloha Neighbors;

According to my dictionary, ‘omniscience’ is the capacity to know EVERYTHING. After reading this weeks MIDWEEK, I thought how lucky our community is to have omniscient folks among us right here on Oahu.

But something didn't feel right.

My deeply held faith teaches me that only God is omniscient and omnipotent, and that it is not (hallelujah!) my job to judge my neighbors; just to love them and work with them for our common good.

When we have local officials and ministers who confidently declare certain candidates “unrighteous” and others “righteous;” When some claim our Hawaii for Jesus, rather than respecting the freedom and pluralism that make our Islands unique in the world, Well, I wonder what bible they are smoking.

I call on my neighbors of ALL faiths, those honestly seeking the truth, and those who are agnostic, to join our majority of citizen patriots! Let’s vote for the ones who will play nice with everybody. Isn’t that what you learned in Sunday school (or Buddhist camp, or Synagogue, Mosque, or Temple)?

Respectfully, Cloudia Charters,
Honolulu

Thanks so much for visiting today. Thoughts?