Aloha is Love

 I think that phrase can describe in three words, exactly what I’ve been thinking and doing these last few days.

I’m dealing with the fraying.  I told Brandon that it felt like my other self was dancing along the threads that connects people together, and connects the past to the present and the future.  But I’m holding together.  More than that, I’m working on getting out of "holding it all together" to "being a better person." 

I got into touch with my water pourer at Lodge and asked when the next Sweat is.  He told me that it’s on the 28th, so I’m going to be going to that.  I think that’s a good thing, a really, really, good thing.  I need to get more balanced, and Sweat’s amazing for balancing yourself.  It’s going to be kind of weird, having Courtenay here… I’ve never had a situation where I’ll have someone when I get out of lodge, if that makes sense… Usually it’s Mom who’s waiting for me, and she’s used to my post-Lodge emotions and the happy-kitten Chris.  It’ll be interesting.  

I also decided I needed to get back into touch with my roots.  I’ve been working on getting into touch with someone who can teach me Hula, and I also got some awesome books from Kamehameha Publishing.  And some games too.  

I got: 

Kukulu – which is a Hawaiian Playing Card game.  It’s flash cards with Hawaiian words on it. It should be a lot of fun.  Even if I play it by myself, it’ll help me with my vocab.  

I also got Hulo! – Which is kind of like scrabble, but everyone’s playing with their own board, if that makes sense.  It’s another Hawaiian vocab game. 

For books, I got: 

Aloha is Love – a book about Hawaiian values for children… it’s actually really neat, shows the meaning of Aloha and the Aloha Law.  

Let’s Make Desserts! – a book about making Hawaiian desserts, but what’s awesome, is that it’s bilingual; if you read it from one side, it’s English, but if you flip it upside down and read from what was the back, it’s all in Hawaiian.  

Hawai’i Island Legends (Pele, Pikoi, and Others) – I was so excited to get this book… it’s filled with Hawaiian legends, which I want to learn by heart.  

I got a text book… Hawaiian Language Fundamentals – ‘Oleo ‘Oiwi  It’s alll about how to read and speak the Hawaiian language.  I’m giddy about it.

And the prize of my collection… Ka Ho’oilina, Volumes 1.2, 3, 4, 5.  I’m missing volume 1.1 and volume 2.  It’s an amazing set of books that hold all sorts of… well…. crap.  ::laughs:: It’s a collection of Hawaiian documents and stories and letters and random stuff.  They’re written in Old Hawaiian, as well as Modern Hawaiian and English.  I’m just… yeah.  I’m so excited.  I need to get the other books.  

But yeah… it’s amazing.  I’m so excited to break open the Text and work at it.  

I also had another experience today.  For the first time I actually rafted down the river!  I’ve been here for 12 years or so, and I haven’t been down the river before today.  I’m burnt. ::laughs:: Just a little… I was laughing that I’m not going to be a white girl when court gets here next week,  I’ll actually have some color.  I’m sleepy now though. I’m so sleepy.  I have work to do tomorrow, gotta go and clean up and stuff.

I didn’t go to the employee picnic, we were on the river too long.  

There’s a lot of other things going on, but I’m not sure what I can talk about, what there is.  The desire to curl up with my new books and pet them is too strong.