Love is All There is…
Live Aloha

As the years go on, the adages of all the elders and teachers of the world ring in my ears…love is all there is…it’s so simple and yet it is the capital “T” Truth of life.

One day I went to the pa’ina (party) for an elder friend who passed on. It was a beautiful Maui day. The first ceremonies started at a church, then went to the ancient burial ground with the kahili bearers (a feather standard on a long pole that signified royalty) and chanters, ancient rites and rituals and then the on to the pa’ina at an oceanside park.

At the church I noticed an older Hawaiian man with a long, thick, black and gray braid down his back. He was sitting several rows ahead of me. Again, at the burial ground, I noticed him as he walked with the other Hawaiians in somber respect of the old ways. There can be hundreds of people in a crowd, but when someone stands out, I believe it's a tap on the shoulder to listen. For some reason, I knew that I would meet him.

When I reached the park, it was filled with tables covered with every Hawaiian delight from chicken long rice to haupia (a coconut dessert). We went from table to table filling our plates and gorging on the food prepared the Hawaiian luau way.

A couple who were cousins through marriage took me around introducing me to people. They loved their heritage and had taken their family back to the taro ponds, living under blue tarps and tents with an outside shower and a life rich with hard work and love…aloha.

As we walked, we headed toward the mystery man. I later learned that he was the keeper of Honaunau*. Instead of the traditional kiss and Hawaiian greeting, the man zeroed into me like an ancient spear. He put his hands together in the sign of namaste, which is an East Indian traditional greeting…bowing to the God within each other. At that time, few people in Hawai’i knew anything about my trip to India and my familiarity with that culture. He did not say hello or any of the customary Hawaiian greetings. He simply looked me straight in the eye and said,

“Love is all there is. We are all like water in a bottle, floating on the ocean…the ocean is love…aloha…and we are stuck in the bottle. We have to find out how to get out of the bottle and be one with the ocean again. That is the only thing we are here to do.” He turned and walked away.

That spear hit its mark. I couldn’t speak with anyone else and soon after left the pa’ina to go back to my upcountry home on the other side of the island. As I pulled away from the park, I began to cry…sobbing…I had no control over it. I couldn’t stop and didn’t know why. There was something in this message that touched the very core of my being. It was how I learned to know the difference between capital “T” Truth and truth. I could feel the difference. My body was my barometer. I realized then that I could KNOW Truth and in those moments of revelation, I could KNOW Love…Aloha.

Living in Hawai’i was a gift to me from above.

There have always been wars, hate, power mongering, greed that have crushed civilizations whether it be ancient Hawaiians or any other people in the world. The history of the world is written by these 'victors', though they've forgotten something.

Queen Liliu’okalani described the problem well:

I could not turn back the time for the political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant, and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all. It is a razor’s edge. It is the width of a blade of pili grass. To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable—that is Aloha. All things in this world are two; in heaven there is but One.

Reality is also this illusive thing called love…aloha. Love has had the healing power to keep the world from imploding on itself. Aloha has guided us toward being as ‘one’ as we can in this lifetime. Love is a thread that has also wound its way through history and been the saving grace of us all.

Most people grow up with some sort of dysfunction in their homes and family, I did. It left me with a poor self-image and starved for love. Though my Godparents gave me a foundation…their love allowed me to know that there was something out there better than what I had experienced…but I still looked for love in all the wrong places. As destiny would have it though, Hawai’i called me and I arrived on her shores to be shaped and molded yet again.