LizKauai

Personal blog of Liz from Kauai.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Ku'uleialoha

Four very lovely ladies come to mind when I think of Ku'uleialoha.

Two have been residents of the Concourse on High for a few years and two have recently joined them.

The first is Tutu Kelley, creator of the pikake style of Niihau shell lei. She turned a craft into art.

Next is her daughter Jean Keale, also associated with the lei of Niihau but more importantly as the first Niihau graduate of Kamehameha Schools, teacher, spiritual wayfarer, and mother of Ilei Beniamina.

Third is Cheryl Spock, from Kauai, also a spiritual wayfarer who loved and served, and touched hearts with Jean Keale in her quest to connect to her Hawaiian heritage before passing this week on Maui.

Fourth is Ku'uleialoha Patton who has been a kahu and kumu hula in Appalachia for several years. She passed a couple of days ago in Honolulu while on a visit.

When the fruit is ripe, the Gardener plucks it from the tree.


Perhaps the sweetest lei aloha is the caressing wind of Niihau- a reminder of the unconditional love that all received from these four extraordinary women- all named Ku'uleialoha.



Ke Ala Pono

Ke ala pono - doing what is right; following the right path. What does that mean in today's world?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, (what's that? the younger generation asks) our planet is being propelled towards a civilization where unity in diversity will thrive.

The foundation of this unity is our very essence- our spiritual reality. It is the stuff of metaphor and analogy. In Hawaiian, the kaona (veiled meaning) of life.


"Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching.
Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established.
World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in state sovereignty is moving towards a climax.
A world, growing to maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life."

We usually look to history to find examples to follow - but in this age, we must take a leap of faith. THE leap of Faith. For this Age has no precedence - just a perfect blueprint, a bunch of tools and volunteers motivated to get the job done.

“the fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race… This is the straight path, the fixed and immovable foundation. Whatsoever is raised on this foundation, the changes and chances of the world can never impair its strength, nor will the revolution of countless centuries undermine its structure.”



Sunday, April 26, 2009

Caterpillar

Steven found a very large caterpillar in the yard this morning. I'm guessing it is turning brown before going on to the next phase but that's just a guess. It was about 3.5 inches long and s fat as my pinky. The largest caterpillar I have seen here.
 
  
  
 Anyone know what kind of creature this is?


Saturday, April 25, 2009

Fish Therapy

#1 son woke me out of a sound sleep this morning. I was planning on going to the Rotary Work Day until Dr. Frank advised not to last night.
So it's a lovely day in the fresh air for me!
Son Aaron and Aunties- some of the regulars who fish here.




Friday, April 24, 2009

Ridvan Appreciation

A Bahá'í woman in Britain asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá for a letter to read during a
celebration of the Day of Ridván; the following is his response: 



O ye beloved, and ye handmaids of the Merciful! This is the day when the Day-
Star of Truth rose over the horizon of life, and its glory spread, and its brightness
shone out with such power that it clove the dense and high-piled clouds and
mounted the skies of the world in all its splendour. Hence do ye witness a new
stirring throughout all created things. 


 
See how, in this day, the scope of sciences and arts hath widened out, and what
wondrous technical advances have been made, and to what a high degree the
mind’s powers have increased, and what stupendous inventions have appeared. 


 
This age is indeed as a hundred other ages: should ye gather the yield of a
hundred ages, and set that against the accumulated product of our times, the yield
of this one era will prove greater than that of a hundred gone before. Take ye, for an
example, the sum total of all the books that were ever written in ages past, and
compare that with the books and treatises that our era hath produced: these books,
112 written in our day alone, far and away exceed the total number of volumes that
have been written down the ages. See how powerful is the influence exerted by the
Day-Star of the world upon the inner essence of all created things! 


 
But alas, a thousand times alas! The eyes see it not, the ears are deaf, and the
hearts and minds are oblivious of this supreme bestowal. Strive ye then, with all your
hearts and souls, to awaken those who slumber, to cause the blind to see, and the
dead to rise. 


('Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 111)



Cat's meow


Maru takes the cake for being a fun cat to watch. Thanks to Tombo Ahi for the link to the world of Maru!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

ADMIN Appreciation

It used to be called "Super Secretary's Day", but by whatever name, business on Kauai probably ground to a near halt on Wednesday between the hours of 10AM and 2PM. That's when the ladies and some gentlemen of the office were at the Kauai Marriott Resort for fun and games and fantastic food.

 
Frank DeLima was there; and Mike Dandurand did the music, Andy Melamed and Ron Wiley emceed along with Augie T.

I was invited by a good fellow at Goodfellow Bros. and admins from Allied, HOH and Gaspro joined our table as well. Jordan Segundo was one of our entertainers and "US Men of Steel" were onstage with the volunteers who went under the hypnotic spell of Tina Marie.

There were vendor booths and I came away with a new purse. IT Kauai had an Asus Netbook as a drawing prize. There was a joke contest (I sucked), a dance contest (OMG!) and a singing contest (which I should have entered but I was shame after the joke contest) and um, well, what played in the hypnosis time STAYS in the hypnosis time... but it was VERY FUNNY to be sure!

The food was really EXCELLENT but for some reason, I took pictures of only the salads. They were outstanding!

The dessert was great and we liked it so much, we got another one! And some of our gang were big prize winners too!
Mahalo to ALL who made it a really FUN time!
OK.
Back to work.


Wednesday, April 22, 2009

"There is grace in being molded by your own gifts."

I like this article written for CNN. It resonates.
Commentary: Why we're fascinated by Susan Boyle


Tom Morey "Y" is one of my favorite people. He lives believing there is no box. Just what you will make of what God gave you.

the ONE! Board



http://tommorey.com/

Why Y

By
Y, on February 26th, 2009


My parents, your parents: they were kids.

The name they gave me, thank you, nice try and I am honored. However, I’ve changed, times have changed and “Thomas Hugh Morey” is pretty long… also a little stuffy.

Plus, lately I’ve been trimming down my kit. So there being hundreds of “Morey”s in the world, and zero people named “Y”, I’m gradually getting rid of ‘More’ and going with just plain ‘Y’.

Next time someone stammers over your name, or can’t spell it… next time you hear it used yet sounds little like who you really are; maybe think about making life easier all around and joining the ranks of the thousands of successful souls who became, the Marilyn Monroes, Victor Matures, and John Waynes of history.

Y’s Plan Could Revolutionize Money

World currencies backed by gold made sense. However, today’s valueless money, issued irresponsibly, pushes world economic order to the brink.
Meanwhile, supposed ‘countries’, their outmoded borders based on the barriers of yesteryear: mountains, rivers and oceans… no long hold water. Instead the politicians, tyrants and bureaucrats fake their way along, holding on by intimidation, smoke and mirrors.
Thus it’s high time the leaders of responsible transnational businesses take charge.  They are the real kings and queens of the planet. ATT, Procter & Gamble, Apple, Microsoft et all, the world’s real ‘nations’.
So rather than trade in worthless dollars, Pesos, Euros, Marks, Yens, switch to commodity backed credits, virtual currency, transferred electronically to/from personal debit cards and backed by stores of real goods: cartons of cigarettes, litters of Pepsi, gallons of 87 octane, theater and Disney tickets, In and Out burgers.


Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Ridvan Greetings!

Today begins our Holiest of Baha'i festivals- the First Day of Ridvan (Rez-Vahn)

Iran Press Watch
has taken the opportunity to share an audio recording of Hand of the Cause Tarazu'llah Samandari.

I was blessed to meet Mr. Samandari twice - In 1967 when I first became a Baha'i. Once in Arizona and once in California. He told the story recounted below about the orange.

He was very frail and light as a feather. One could hear him cough and knew he was not well. After all, he was well into his 90s. But when he appeared and began to speak about Baha'u'llah, his voice gathered strength from somewhere and you could feel that power as he spoke!
Imagine. Meeting someone who was actually in the presence of Baha'u'llah. What a glorious day to be alive!

Hand of the Cause Tarazu'llah Samandari with Gloria Faizi, New Era High School, Panchgani, India, 1967.

Tarázu’lláh Samandarí

(1875-1968)

“Ornament of God”

Tarázu’lláh Samandarí came from an illustrious family. His grandfather was a well-known and highly respected merchant who recognized the Cause of God from the earliest times and his father was an Apostle of Bahá’u’lláh. His grandmother was one of the companions of Táhirih. Bahá’u’lláh gave him his name when he was an infant, and “Tarázu’lláh” means “ornament of God” and his life proved this to be very illustrative.

An accomplished calligrapher, Mullá ‘Alí, known as Jináb-i-Mu’allim, who had been introduced to the Faith by his father and had been praised by Bahá’u’lláh as the first teacher to put into practice Bahá’í principles of education, became his teacher. Tarázu’llah was a good student and later became an outstanding master of calligraphy, revered as a highly educated man, due in part to his exposure to the many wonderful Tablets he copied. His craft enabled him to become familiar, to a unique degree, with the penmanship of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdul-Bahá and their various amanuenses, so that in later years he was asked to use this skill to identify many Tablets.

When he was 16 he went on pilgrimage from Iran to the Holy Land, arriving there in November 1891, was there for seven months, and was there when Bahá’u’lláh passed away in May 1892. He has shared many stories over the years. He found that he, like so many believers, was unable to describe His face, for he couldn’t bear to look at it in His presence.

A story shared by Leslie Taherzadeh, widow of author Adib Taherzadeh, recalls one event several weeks in early spring, well before the passing of Bahá’u’lláh. He said that Bahá’u’lláh’s tent had been placed in the garden and when it was time for Bahá’u’lláh to speak, he had been unable to find space in the tent, yet noticed that there was a section with a small table that had been set aside to provide for service to the people in the tent. This section had an open side of the tent directly in front of it, so that one could be “in the tent” but couldn’t see inside, or be seen by those in the tent. So the young Samandarí stood there, essentially right behind Bahá’u’lláh, and could hear every word. So he remained there throughout the time Bahá’u’lláh was talking to the believers. When it was over and people were leaving, they were each handed oranges from baskets by people at the sides of the tent, but there weren’t enough for everyone. The young pilgrim was disappointed that he couldn’t get an orange. At that moment Bahá’u’lláh walked around to the other side of the tent and gave him His orange. Mr. Samandari was so excited that he received an orange directly from His hand! There were quite a few other youth there, and they apparently saw what happened and began to approach him, perhaps with the intention of getting the very special orange. Mr. Samandari remembers running very fast back to the house, eating the orange as he ran, for he didn’t want to share that special orange with anyone!

(28) Excerpted from Barron Harper,

Lights of Fortitude, pp. 307-316.


Monday, April 20, 2009

Aloha Ball

Aloha Ball is a term we use, among other things, to indicate the match point of a volleyball game.
University of Hawaii 7th man tradition is to stand up for the aloha ball.

Saturday night's Aloha Ball for the 2009 Men's Volleyball Team was especially sweet because it signified a hard-won victory for the UH Rainbow Warriors (I love that there is still somewhere that you can chant "Let's Go, Bows!" ) vs #5 USC who swept the Bows on Friday.

Significant for me, was that it was the first game I ever attended at the Stan Sheriff Center. (Mahalo to Stretch for the tickets!) It was also the last game for Coach Mike Wilton who is retiring and moving to Provo, Utah to focus on faith and family (and an assistant coaching job for BYU's woman's VB team).

"I'll never forget the days when people were hanging from the rafters, with Yuval Katz and the Rubberband Man," (Athletic Director Jim) Donovan said. "There are memories that will be there for the rest of our lives. Mike Wilton was the orchestrator of all of that. He brought the people in."

So instead of watching the last game on TV, I stayed over after a day-long Baha'i training session and got an infusion of "Tsai-ko" therapy and got to be part of the 7th man in person.


"Rubberband Man" Alan Hackbarth

The Tsai-meister himself captured the spirit of the game in his article for The Advertiser:

The Warriors found encouragement from fans that formed the way, entertained themselves during timeouts and steered the momentum in the teeter-totter that was the third set.
"This," outside hitter Jim Clar said of the crowd, "was why I came to Hawai'i."
The three seniors — Clar, China and setter Sean Carney — all started. They were on the court for the final point.
Clar is from Rochester, N.Y.. China and Carney are graduates of Hawai'i private schools who attended Lewis University as freshmen. It was an emotional week for Carney, whose father Tom died of cancer Monday night.
"We really wanted to win this one for our seniors," said Strotman, a junior who was raised in Long Beach. "They really mean a lot to me. I learned a lot playing for Wilton. And I really looked up to Sean, Jimbo and Mikey. They really taught me a lot. I'll never forget it."
Middle blocker Steven Grgas said the "energy the fans brought won it for us. When I was at my lowest, they were chanting for me. They fired us up. I was thinking if we keep working hard, it can be like this all the time."
Wilton said: "It was pretty sweet. The guys really played a nice match. It was a pretty nice way to go out."


Afterwards, JM2375 and I caught up with a few more Tsai-kos (some who were at the Base-Bows game) at Genji's for some food, fellowship and Karaoke!
Brie and JaM -fresh from the Base Bows game

http://picasaweb.google.com/LizKauai/UHMenSVolleyball4182004#

Saturday, April 18, 2009

UH vs USC

My first volleyball game at the Stanley!
Mahalo Stretch and JM2375 !

Friday, April 17, 2009

62nd West Kauai Rotary Track Meet

The weather held and another successful track meet has just concluded
 Congrats to all the student athletes!
Waimea High won the team trophy in overall points . Caralyn Broyles and Torrey Santiago
captured female and male athlete of the meet.

Images and videos can be found HERE on my Picasa Album.
**********************************************************************

from THE GARDEN ISLAND

Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i track meet has rich history

Kaua‘i’s Kimberly Liberato and Waimea’s Jayme Jacinto are neck and neck early in the girls 100-meter hurdles event at the Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i track meet, Friday at Vidinha Stadium. Jacinto finished the event first on a 16.91 run, getting an auto state berth (17.41), followed by Liberato at 17.50 for a consideration time (18.04) after clipping several hurdles late in the run. Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island

By Paul Curtis - The Garden Island
Published: Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:10 AM HST

LIHU‘E — It is so old it used to be held in Kekaha.

Jim Dawson of the Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i remembers the earlier days of the Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i track and field meet, when most runners competed barefoot on the red-clay track that still surrounds the Lindsay A. Fayé Park near the Kekaha Neighborhood Center.

In those days, the finishing times and winning distances in the field events were all handwritten, and the stopwatches had to be hand-wound before the event’s beginning to make sure they worked properly for the duration of the meet.

Today, everything is digital, but the essence of the competitive meet remains.

Friday marked the 62nd Annual Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i Track and Field Meet, the more recent editions taking place at Vidinha Stadium, with digital stopwatches replacing the wind-up kind, and high-tech track spikes now covering the feet of the athletes.

Blue-clad Rotarians scampered across the football/soccer field that is the infield when track and field events are scheduled, coordinating the various running and field events.

Dawson, as usual, served as meet announcer, calling for athletes to check in for their events, announcing the results, and prodding the prepsters to come and pick up their medals.

The Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i provided the manpower, medals and trophies for the meet, including the team trophy and perpetual trophy.

Ironically, though, because the events of Friday night were timed by hand, the complete results were not available by presstime, so will be included in Sunday’s paper.

Paul C. Curtis, sports writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com


Lilu and I

One of the "bad" things about being a picture-taker, image-capturer, chronicler, whatever, is that there are few images of yourself with the chroniclee (new word).

 
Lilu at our house. A first. That's Margaret and me grinding in the background.  Then Poipu Beach where I made a few videos. Right after that, I carried Lilu around for the first time during her visit.

This is a favorite shot captured by my daughter. Aaron shows Lilu the REAL moon in the sky and she responds that she understands by signing "moon".  A cool moment for amateur astronomer uncle Aaron!


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ocellaris Clownfish

Our clownfish are spawning.
Cool!
I don't have any rotifers or phytoplankton ready so the larvae will not survive. But I may try to raise some in the future.
Shades of Betta splendens days!


Ocellaris Clownfish have spawned from Liz Kauai on Vimeo.


A New Season

Neighbor boy Kenny Estes looks to make starter on the Warriors Football Team this year. YEAH!
GO ESTES #37!!!
http://www.starbulletin.com/sports/20090415_safety_looks_to_break_from_pack.html


Of course, I have become a fan of Susan Boyle.
Her dream is my dream:

I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables

I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
As they turn your dream to shame.

And still
I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different form this hell I'm living
so different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.


Monday, April 13, 2009

Possibilities


I just finished watching the making of Herbie Hancock's collaborative album "Possibilities".

Add another voice calling to humanity to be human.

"I think there's a great beauty to having problems. That's one of the ways we learn."

"'I'm always interested in looking forward toward the future. Carving out new ways of looking at things."

"It is people's hearts that move the age."

"Being a musician is what I do, but it's not what I am."

"Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music."

"The thing that we possess, that machines don't, is the ability to exhibit wisdom."

"Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose."

"You can practice to attain knowledge, but you can't practice to attain wisdom."

"But, the truth is that everyone is somebody already."

"You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life."

"It's not exclusive, but inclusive, which is the whole spirit of jazz."

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Survivors

My day Saturday started with survivors.
 
The beach at Pakala is a survivor of Kauai's plantation heritage. It remains part of a plantation camp that still thrives and survived the force of Hurricane Iniki when newer homes were shredded.

 
A little while later, I did a video interview with my friend Lucky. She was one of the artists featured in the ‘Survivors’ art show by the YWCA - at the Kaua‘i Society of Artists space at Kukui Grove Shopping Center. A collection by more than 60 YWCA clients — all survivors of abuse who have transformed their pain into resilience.

Afterwards, I spent my afternoon in a learning module for Child Protection Training. Our Baha'i community requires child protection training and certification for all adults who work with children and youth.

When I reflect on the articles found on the left side of my blog roll, I am amazed that people are being arrested, imprisoned and tortured for doing this kind of community service in their native lands.