Lost Time

A  L  O  H  A !

This was my theme-song for many years. 

 Now it mostly reminds me of the blessings of ALOHA,
of friends, family & neighbors.


Let's be rocks together! Click and sing along as we look at some fresh Honolulu images:

"You don't really understand human nature

 unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round

 will wave at his parents every time around -

 and why his parents will always wave back."

  William D. Tammeus

"Each day of our lives

 we make deposits

 in the memory banks of our children."

  Charles R. Swindoll

“Write injuries in sand, kindnesses in marble”

 French Proverb

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We were as tiny mice,

 living in the baroque edifice

 of our parents' war-without-end.'

A milieu of constant stress + no reassurance or positive attention = severe damage.

That would be me.

It all seemed so fated,

 just the way the world works;

 get used to it.

"This is the best time of your life,"
 my father told me.
  "You'll have to work hard everyday,
 so enjoy being a kid."

This was the best I could hope for?!

  I already wanted to die.

Other kids played.

 They seemed childish and stupid to me;

  I knew the truth,

and set my sights on the far horizon

 of adulthood and escape.

I wasn't popular,

 which didn't bother me
 and was mutual.

The only peace & comfort I knew

 was in blessed solitude:

a book, a brook

running through trees.
Animals.

Alone at night in my room

their arguing filtered through a 

reassuring wall. . .

They never meant the messages that I received

but the were received.

And only now-

half a century later-

are they being examined

and rejected.

Dead letters

whose news (nevertheless)

 had shaped my life.

Time to explore new frontiers of being human.

No time for regret.

I'm making up for lost time:

being happy

"wasting" love and patience on strangers

and myself;

even on those closest.

                                                                                                   cloudia

"Make us glad

 in reward for the days of our sorrow,

 and for the years in which we have seen evil."

Psalm 90:15

Douay-Rheims Bible

Fleeting Gold

A  L  O  H  A  !

"But especially he loved to run

 in the dim twilight. . . 

 listening to the subdued and sleepy murmurs. . .

 reading signs and sounds

 as a man may read a book,

 and seeking for the mysterious something 

that called -- 

called,

 waking or sleeping,

 at all times, for him to come."

   Jack London 

(The Call of the Wild)

"Life is not a matter of holding good cards,
 but sometimes, playing a poor hand well." 

Jack London 

"One cannot violate

 the promptings of one's nature

without having that nature

 recoil upon itself."

Jack London

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Hawaii's sun 

mellows 

in the Autumn

Sleeps in

larks about

retires early

Less cruel

(Lahaina)

fully lovely to contemplate

as a mature

and beautiful

woman.

Getting There

A l o h a !

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"We're all here for a little while.

Let's try to work it out."

Rodney King

"To me, everything terrible in the world

 stems from people

 trying to force their ideas and beliefs

 on other people."

Ed Hardy

"Just become quiet, still and solitary - 

and the world will offer itself to you

 to be unmasked; it has no choice.

 It will roll in ecstasy at your feet" -

Franz Kafka

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The Ego is fighting for it's life.

Your best interests are not it's goal.

It makes you

"just not want to"

do just the things that will set you free.

You free = ego death;

and that feels real good

and it feels just right-

as the ego shivers in it's grave,

starved of striving

and regret.

So hush little ego

don't you cry

I will defeat you, by and by

to live Here,

Now

without gut's regret.

Bravely

matter-of-fact-ly

in the glory 

of my own

sunset.

   

        You know?   cloudia

Life Kaleidoscope

A L O H A

Means YOU are Warmly Welcome Here :)

"There is much pleasure to be gained

from useless information."

Bertrand Russell

(The new motto for this blog?)

reflective

"In water one sees one's own face;  But in wine one beholds the heart of another”

French Proverb

"She has a light inside her

that makes other people

look better."

Homer Simpson,

of his wife Marge

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What a weekend!

Was yours hectic as well?

New horizons seem to be opening up to me.

I can hear

new opportunities singing

 over the next hill.

And part of that feeling

is absolute comfort

with

TODAY;

Just the way it is.

Ups and downs make the

ride what it is!

Keep YOUR rubber

firmly on the road;

Until it is time to lift those wheels

as you take off

to the open skies,

to 

your 

dreams!

Have a wonderful flight,

you are cleared for takeoff!

        Fondly, Cloudia      

Ina - Imagine

Do you see the tiny hang-glider in the top/left?

"To live is the rarest thing in the world.


 Most people exist, that's all."


 Oscar Wilde

Do You Recognize This Song?

       Thanks for visiting!  cloudia

Alan Brennert

A L O H A !

Alan Brennert, 

by me :)

There are recognized artists,

 who remain humble even while enjoying best seller(s),

 the laurels, and the rewards that success brings.

 They feel, perhaps, a responsibility to their muse &

 a mission to carry the torch with some purpose greater than

 their own egos.

 They remain alert to the struggling beginner

 for whom a kind word is like winning a prestigious award.

 No need to lie, a mere friendly acknowledgement

 will satisfy the hobbyist, 

feed and fire up the true & lonely journeyman.

Such an artist is author Alan Brennert.

A while back I blogged a review of Alan Brennert'sMolokai a novel that haunts me still with it's successful alchemy of research, skill, & magic.

 (You can look at that review here)

Well, out of the blue, Mr. Brennert was kind enough to

 send me a friendly e-mail graciously thanking me for the

 review! His book is already HUGE, and he's on to the next

 ones. He didn't have to do that. He wrote that my little 

Hawaii novel, Aloha Where You Like Go?

 and this blog,

 looked "interesting" and invited me to meet him

 here in Honolulu during the promotional tour of his 

follow up, Honolulu.

That's when I took the picture of him at top.

A

Later, he sent me the link to the interview below

 in which he kindly quoted something

 I had said to him when we met:

A:One of the aspects of your writing I love best is your ability to cover a wide scope of time through a collection of moments with emotional poignancy. You are one of the few authors who can make a novel feel like it spans an entire life without leaving out anything of significance. Can you articulate your philosophy of writing?

AB: I can’t say I have a conscious philosophy other than that the story should be both historically and emotionally true.  I don’t bend history to accommodate the plot nor do I have my characters behave in a way that isn’t true to themselves just to advance the story.  And in Moloka’i and Honolulu I also strived to be—in the words of my friend, Honolulu writer Cloudia Charters—“Hawai’i true,” that is, accurate in depicting Hawaiian culture, society, and traditions..    (source HERE)

Yesterday, Alan kindly sent me the link to the web page below that mentions both of us. . . as if we were in the same category or something!  Alan is the real deal. He produces great books with absorbing characters set in complex environments that he researches deeply. If you can't visit us in Hawaii, you can feel as if you are here by immersing yourself in his best selling novels.

Knowing Alan and reading his books have proven to me that "best seller" doesn't have to mean middle of the road pablum.

StressCadet  Posting Member 1000+ Posts Club Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: So Cal Posts: 1,728 TS4MS Points: 52,029

Do you enjoy fiction books about Hawaii? I just finished Honolulu by Alan Brennert. It's a time piece following 4 picture brides and their lives from Korea to Oahu and spans about 60 years. I loved it. I had previously read Molokai by the same author and enjoyed that very much as well. I also enjoy Kiana Davenport's books...though I set aside Song of the Exile and then moved-so I need to go through some pretty big boxes to locate it-but I'm on a roll-so I think I'll do that. If you haven't read Shark Dialogues-this really is her premier piece. Start there. I also enjoyed a really light read while on Oahu this past year called Aloha, Where you like go? About a woman who moves to the BI following her boyfriend and eventually lands in Oahu and drives a taxi. This one is a little graphic-but heartwarming never the less. I also enjoyed the Chicken Soup for a Hawaiian Soul and the Glen Grant ghost stories...but to be honest-I almost did want to return to Oahu after reading some of the stories...talk about chicken skin. Please add your favorite authors and books about the Hawaiian Islands. I need a fix.

(Source HERE)

So hey, get Alan's Hawaii novels. You won't be 


disappointed. 

Then, if you have the appetite for a little light reading you


 can pick up my little novel "Aloha Where You Like Go?"

(HERE)   Just remember:  

 "This one is a little graphic-

but heartwarming never the less."




       Aloha, cloudia