“Aloha mai e”  = Greetings and salutations

Journal diary entry – 11 September 2017 – As I awaken from my cat nap not fully recovered from my overnight flight from O’ahu, Hawaii to LAX, California. I look around my bedroom from my prone position I see the disarray of papers from my briefcase, and down on the floor the unpacked travel bag near the bed, I reach for a glass of water, and my Journal falls onto the Bed, there’s a pen nearby, and as I reach for the pen and apply it to the page, my thoughts unravel.

My baggage tag still on the bag reads O’ahu to LAX. O’ahu, yes that Hawaiian island called the “Gathering Place.” Being the most visited destination of all the Hawaiian Islands, yes you can say the handle fits. Unfortunately For many visitors, commercial O’ahu, will be the only experience of the Islands that they will ever experience, which only scratches the surface of the various experiences that it and the other islands offer. Now I must say my being from Southern California, with its bustling population, I still felt cultural shock with the humanity overload on this island. It is a wonder how the cities of Waikiki and Honolulu on this island still hold to the magic of expectation and celebrations as it does. Even Oahu as each of the other Hawaiian island showcases its own special form of “E Komo Mai.” -(Welcome). Each island saying to your heart and brain be still and know ( Pa`a ka waha.) Aloha.

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Journal diary entry 12 September 2017 – This morning, the second day of my return from Oahu, my writing seems to be re-experiencing, maybe even remixing past and present. I should start by saying this is not my first venture onto the Hawaiian Islands, but it has been more than 15 years since last, I step foot on any Hawaiian island. It was on the island “Hawaii” known as “the Big Island” is where my memories have taken me as I write this.

Legend has it, Pele rules the Big Island, she who is honored as the fire goddess represented by the color red, representing her Lava flow that still spills and flows from the shore and into the sea. I remember the Pua lehua flower, bright red feather-like blossoms that represented Pele and the Big Island. The Big Island, for me, represents transformation. It began as the site of my personal integration from Prosperos student to acknowledge Mentor studies. A process, first started with Mentor Perry Dickey and Thane, as time went on other Mentors of the Prosperos soon became part of my learning and transformation process. In time locations of Prosperos Assemblies like Victoria, B.C., Canada; Santa Monica, California; and Kah-Nee-Ta Village, Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon; and Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.

On Kona, while at a Prosperos Assemblies being held in one of the resort hotels, I found myself at one of their outdoor bar tables with a view of the Beach and the sea beyond. That is where I met Uncle George Lanakilakekiahialiʻi Naʻope, as he sat down at my table to get a better view of a Hula Class that was taking place on the sand below us. One of his trained Hula instructors was teaching this class, and Uncle George came to keenly watch every movement of the students, the teaching instructor, and the dance, all this he did, while we chatted. He talked about the power and potency contained in storytelling, in history, and the art of Hula as the vehicle to reveal a visceral knowing of the power of the hidden or unspoken.  I was amazed, how this chance encounter and conversation has stayed with me, then coalesced and seemed serendipitous with concepts my close friend and Prosperos Mentor Mary Ritley and I would discuss at our ongoing monthly meals together and its relationship to her Cultural History class where she too, spoke to the subjects of culture and history and storytelling.

Returning in consciousness to the present, I find myself on O’ahu, at my nephews Chris and his mate Natasha marriage, I realize the elements of culture, history, and storytelling are all coming together in the marriage ceremony. The ceremony which is a formal series of archetype words and actions prescribed by ritual to create a greater sense of visceral oneness, a bringing together of people, as a family as a whole is what the encounter entailed. The next day the experience was created again in the guise of sharing a meal. An invitation to spend the afternoon and evening on the other side of the island, had been extended to myself and members of my family by Maureen Malanaphy and Kathleen Malanaphy-Morita, (E komo mai, e noho mai, e `ai a e, wala`au) join them in conversation food and drink at their home’s. My family and I had a chance to caravan from different points on Oahu to converge at the Maureen and Kathleen’s respective homes. various homes. Once there we were all made to feel welcomed and comfortable in a sense of Love and Oneness which is Aloha. We shared together in fellowship, laughter, conversation, a vision as old as man has been in community.  As a side note, Maureen and Kathleen talked about possibly coming to the mainland for Assembly 2018 taking place over the Labor Day weekend next year.

Sitting quite in this moment, back at my writing, in my room, I have been looking back, feeling blessed, and yet looking forward and inward – knowing there is no such thing as ordinary human circumstance, our lives in all human activities hold moments of cosmic and even mythic events. the heights and depths of life goes beyond the seemly static experiences and finds us once more at that moment, as a preface to something new, and yet rooted in something older than time itself.

I chuckled, consciously embracing my own natural cycle of return, A chance to share a new richness, depth, and meaning not only in my life but to others that come to share in the celebration of the Oneness of Light and joined lives.

“Aloha mai e”

Calvin