Snow Memories

Aloha, Friend!

It's

Friday

in

W A I K I K I

click on the memories

Living here in Waikiki means lots of sun in February

"I have never seen snow

and do not know what winter means. "

Duke Kahanamoku

But when there is a major winter storm,

my thoughts return to my east coast childhood.

"Genius is an African who dreams up snow."

Nabokov

Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood. "

Andy Goldsworthy

><>

The day after big snow

in a great city

is a festival!

Sunny skies

like salvation show

a blinding white,

a crisp blue vast,

of

sky

with celebratory clouds.

Yesterday

there was no horizon

just a suspension of silver confetti flakes.

Today the sky's reopened.

Rivulets of melted snow,

and the squeals of children

in the

awe-hushed town,

promise Spring.

ALOHA, Snow Bunnies! cloudia

Let's Flock

ALOHA, FRIENDS!


Welcome
to
W a i k i k i

click on photos to ride along

Driving under Hawaii winter skies


“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky;
there is one spectacle grander than the sky,
that is the interior of the soul”

Victor Hugo

Santa is wintering in Hawaii!


Did you ever wonder why the tool is called a "monkey wrench?"
It was invented by Charles Moncky

The word "toy" comes from the Olde English for "tool."

Is a blog a tool or a toy?

><>

The Pew Internet & American Life Project
estimates that one in ten on-line adults has a blog;
That's 30 million blogging adults.

Glad we found each other!

><>

My blog is a kite
I send up every day.
Your daily dose of Hawaii
Through my eyes.

Some blogs are fighting kites
Cutting the strings
Of their opponents'
Arguments.

But Comfort Spiral
is a message in a bottle:
"Like minded people
Come out and play."

And like miracles
Or migrating butterflies
You come to display your colors!

The Sky is full of kites
Each one is different
Yes,
Another wondrous day . . .

A L O H A, cloudia

Cloudy Thinking

Aloha, Friend!

Welcome

to

Waikiki

click on photos to enlarge

Did you know that the first person to fly solo from Hawaii

to the continent (in 1935) was Amelia Earhart?

"It is very simple to be happy,

but it is very difficult to be simple."

Rabindranath Tagore

"Time might be a great healer- but it's a lousy beautician."

CoCo

><>

"Clouds are such simple things,

nothing more than colloidal suspensions

of water droplets or ice crystals in air,

but they are the key to life outside the oceans.

Without clouds there is no rain,

and without rain

there is only arid land

where nothing lives."

Richard Brill

ALOHA, cloudia

New Orleans Saints

Aloha, Friends!

Welcome Back to Waikiki-

E Komo Mai, Come Inside and Warm Up

click on photos!

"The greater the philosopher the harder it is for him to answer the questions of common people."

Henryk Sienkiewicz

><>


Specialization is the glory of our species, we go to a physician who has dedicated himself to medicine, we have exquisite "experts" who are "the best" in every field. And yet I can't help thinking that this is just what has led us to the compartmentalization that seems the root our all our systemic problems (which are becoming unbearably great).
Perhaps the solutions will emerge from us "Non-Experts?"

Sweet little bungalow beside the H-1


"Much of what passes for advanced literary scholarship these days
is dreadful twaddle-
incoherent, emotionally empty, deeply illiterate."
Terry Castle, Professor of English, Stanford University

(Susan Sontag called her
"-the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today.")

"Swim with the dolphins."



"Originality and a feeling of one's own dignity are achieved only through work and struggle." Dostoyevsky

><>

My sweet little collaborator, Miss Kitty, is sitting tucked against my side.
Favorite Husband has gone off to work (good fellow!).
The fan drones it's chant
here below decks.



Our ancient boat is still floating,
as are my spirits.
A magical, sense-smattering night in
Chinatown on Saturday
has me on a Lunar New Year high.



According to Lillian Too,
the famous Astrologer and Feng Shui expert,
I am the favored creature (lady water snake)
of the horoscope this year.




This nicely dovetails with my prevailing sense that:
"I'm coming into my own this year."
Having climbed so many invisible mountains,
and having had the privilege of assisting many forgotten folks
("Don't let your left hand know what the right one's doing,
nor dwell on good deeds.")
having had that privilege
I feel ready for new opportunities:
officiant, ghost writer, tour guide,
small business operator, clown-doctor.




Perhaps this is the year
that I finally know what I'm going to be
if I grow up.




Of course I'm all I need to be
Right Now:
posting my message to the world of all of
You,
then returning to the natural foods store
for the items that Hubby paid for
then left behind.
A mother blogger's work is never done,
eh friends?




Accidentally, I did a cool thing yesterday here in da Comfort Spiral.
I often put a picture, song, or quote
into a "New Post"
and schedule it for a brief time in the future
so that it will stay top of list
where I can complete and post it.



I intended to "take Monday off" as I sometimes do
and let Sunday's post (with the hula video) remain a deserved extra day.




Well, a "New Post" consisting only of a gadget to hear Beyonce`s HALO
accidentally posted on Monday.
First I was embarrassed.
Then I realized that it was basically
"freshening" Sundays post
which it seemed to "top."



PLUS, I had wondered if anybody cared about the new song feature
because only Fireblossom HERE had ever commented on one.
Well, yesterday people DID comment on the song!
So I felt a little less like I'd been caught with my
Blogging Pants down!
(I meant to do that.)




And while we're on the subject of songs
and second guessing,
a few posts ago
"Run this Town" featuring Rhianna
was my song of the day.
I feared that it was Too Something
for many of you bloggy friends.



Then I noticed that it was almost the
theme music of the Super Bowl.

Vindication!



PLUS I've been rooting for the SAINTS
all season.



Now THAT's VINDICATION! WOOOOOOO!!!!!




Now I'm looking forward to the Vancouver Olympics;
or the little kid in me who watched the black & white TV
on the living room floor
during the last century
is still looking forward to it!



And I feel like I've already been visiting that Magic City
through the blog of our friend Jo HERE.




Hmmmmm. . .
"Being an Olympic athlete"
another aspiration that I never actualized.
Always seemed that there was time.
But after 50. . . well, I'll watch it on TV and the web.




But take heart, Cloudi,
this is MY year astrologically.
Recognition, success, and satisfaction
are coming my way
as I ride the Golden Tiger.



Big thanks for riding along with me.
Your visits, comments,
and your own posts,
mean a LOT to me!
><>

Bonus points: During the Super Bowl, Hubby noted that the score board: "NO vs IND"
reminded him of our US government in Washington:
No versus Indecisive!
*Sigh*


ALOHA, cloudia

HALO

Worship Ways

ALOHA

Friends

it's

SUNDAY

in

W A I K I K I

click on photos to really FEEL it!

"The groves were God's first temples."

William C. Bryant

"People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed
only if there is a light from within."
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

><<<<;<'>


Some people worship in a church.
Some worship on a motorcycle,
or out on the water.
For some, spending time with family
is their true communion with what matters.




Some of us like to be alone in a quiet place
the better to hear
that still, small voice.




I believe that the sheer expression of joy in this life,
and in each other,
is a high form of worship.
Last week at a community event,
an audience member got up and danced
Hula spontaneously.




That filled me with gratitude
and a desire to spread the good.





Look for yourself:

To spread some good, click HERE

Warm ALOHA, cloudia

Run This Town

ALOHA
Friend
Saturday
has come to
W A I K I K I

Today's song is upbeat! I find it very compelling:

click on photos for enlargement; yours?

"Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries."
James Michener

Trees look ghostly and mysterious at night.
I like the rainbow effect in this shot.

"Beautiful young people are accidents of nature,
but beautiful old people are works of art."
Eleanor Roosevelt

This small dog can drink us all under the table!


"The only end of writing
is to enable the readers better to enjoy life,
or better to endure it."
Samuel Johnson

><>>,><'>


Walking along the beach yesterday,
I was thinking that it often takes "common sense"
a while to catch up to the facts.




Some old folks were afraid to have electricity,
or telephones, in their homes.
Common sense once proclaimed:
"Man was not meant to fly"
But we know that men
and women
DO fly every day,
though many of us still feel that primal fear
of losing the ground beneath our feet.




Mystics have long taught us
that our thoughts have power,
effecting ourselves, others,
and our circumstances
small and large.




Common sense rebels at this,
but yesterday I saw a report on the news
in which the reporter was driving a small car
with only her thoughts!




Brain waves can be measured.
When an angry or agitated person enters the room
we feel it - whatever our logic dictates.




I like to think that there is a benevolent effect
from the love I feel for those who walk beside me.




Today I found the passage below in a book.
Coincidence?




"In many ways
the spiritual challenge of 'waiting'
and becoming a different quality of person
makes more of a contribution to this world
than financing a new hospital. . .
We are unaccustomed to giving value to what we
cannot see,
and we cannot see the power emitted
from a healthy psyche."
Caroline Myss
"Anatomy of the Spirit"




What do YOU think?
Can you feel it?






ALOHA, cloudia