Kaua'i...

I had to go to Kaua'i on Saturday for a burial conference. I was so run-down and exhausted from the stress of the past week that the thought of waking up at 3:00 in the morning on the weekend to catch the first flight out to Kaua'i was extremely unappealing. I just wanted to sleep in. And spend the day with the boys doing silly meaningless things that somehow in the passage of time, become incredibly meaningful. I headed to the airport with a black cloud over my head.

At the airport, the ticketing agent swapped my coach seat for a First Class seat. I don't know why. I just smiled when I approached the agent. Maybe a smile first thing in the morning can get you far in life. I ended up not sitting in First Class because the seat felt too restrictive for my legs as it was in the first row. I moved to the back of the plane which wasn't terribly full.

My rental car was a sweet ride. I ate a nice breakfast by myself. My waitress, Sandy, who just made 76 years of age, and I, were the only two people in the place. She opened up about all kinds of things and when she found out where I worked. She shared that she was a step-mother of someone who used to work at my office. She told me all kinds of stories about this person's life growing up and family problems. More than I needed to know but fascinating nonetheless. Such a small world. Especially Hawai'i. I gave her an extra big tip because she had a rough morning when the waitress from the night before left a lot of dirty dishes and cups for her to clean.

I visited a kupuna before heading to the conference. I had such a nice conversation. His house reminded me of my grandmother's house with geckos climbing up the wall and all. Roosters crowed and chickens clucked around outside. It was beautiful.

The conference was intense. Lots of good mana'o from a wide variety of Native Hawaiians and government officials involved in permitting and planning approvals on the subject of desecration of unmarked native Hawaiian ancestral burial sites. Lots of kaumaha, 'eha and tears also had lots of love and Aloha and positive solutions. A couple of times the 'uhane of the kupuna were present in light flickering, unexplained sounds and other phenomenon. It was a beautiful day and I got to see so many people and friends from my past there.

There were a lot of faces in the clouds when I left. I stopped by to see the kupuna before heading off to the airport. We shared stories and he told me some beautiful mo'olelo with important life lessons. We had dinner together. He gave me poi. The poi ended up tasting like the poi my grandmother used to make for me. I have a feeling she was around me yesterday. I ended up having to check my bag of poi in as luggage because you can't bring liquids or gels onto the airplane anymore. I would have just given the bag away to the first friendly deserving person I found but I knew it had a lot of spiritual mana being from my kulaiwi and it was meant to restore some of the my mana which I give away much too freely at times. My little bag of poi amongst all the giant luggage was worrisome but it arrived perfectly on the other end.

At the airport, I ran into another spiritual friend who I hadn't seen in awhile. It was great. We embraced and caught up quickly before his flight departed before mine. I got home about 10:00 p.m. and the boys had just fallen asleep. I woke them up to give them a shower. Then we all crashed in the same bed. It was a nice ending to a beautiful day on my kulaiwi Kaua'i. She truly knows how to heal me and lift my spirits again as I head into another hectic week at work. How could I possibly not love an island which gives me so many blessings to sustain my spirit and my life...