Ephemeral Life...

No better way than to spend a Sunday together with the 'ohana wading in the life giving salty waters to cleanse the spirit. And wash away our trespasses against each other to start anew...

The boys are looking forward to Toy Story 3 coming out soon. They grew up with Toy Story 1 and 2 when they were little squirmy tykes. It will bring back fond memories. Especially for me since they are growing up so fast. Way too fast...

Koa's school always has conch blowers before any program or ceremony. It is a wonderful tribute to our ali'i and kupuna of old. Such a familiar sound for their restless spirits. A kahea for their presence to witness the future unfolding of their legacy of love and aloha. Sometimes there are two. Sometimes three. The more you have, the less pressure there is to start off with a solid clean sound...

Some beautiful vibrant Native American women at the Hilo Powwow...

Some kids enjoy performing much more than others...

Elliott and his classmates enjoyed going to the Waikoloa Petroglyph field on Hawai'i Island to learn some things from Uncle Ski about Hawaiian rock art...

I have realized lately how critical it is to come for up air once in awhile. Lest you drown in a painful way...

This turtle looks disappointed. Maybe disappointed in mankind...

From the Powwow in Hilo...

The colors of the shoreline of Hawai'i Island. Jet black pahoehoe lava. Pinkish hued algae growth. Bright green seaweed. Reddish brown seaweed. Purplish black sea urchins. Golden hued limu. All awash in the cold dark waters mixed in sea salt and fresh water springs. The frothy sudsy flow. The waters of life...

Elliott's bean plant is growing nicely. Slowly reaching upward. Entwining itself in a slow motion dance towards the light of Ke Akua...

Koa and I looked at a little sculpture depicting the two fisherman and child who were chased by Kamehameha and who ended up defending themselves by cracking Kamehameha over the head with a canoe paddle, splintering the paddle, when Kamehameha's foot got stuck in a lava crevice. Later Kamehameha became King and had the opportunity to slay the two men brought before him at a later time. But he pardoned them and declared the "Law of the Splintered Paddle" which gave old men, women and children the right to go about their business unmolested and unharmed. Lest the perpetrator be punished with death. This is a nice depiction of that mo'olelo. Makes me want to go get a slab of clay and start sculpting. The problem is that my mind's eye can envision masterpieces but my hands currently make human anatomy look more like disfigured disproportionate blobs of barely recognizable human-like form...

Certainly how I felt for the last few days. But with no makapiapia...

This reminds me of a song by Ernie and Bert...Rubby Ducky, you're the one...on the black sand beach...and not in the bathtub of course...

This reminds me either of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins on television. And yes, I just dated myself...

More from the powwow in Hilo on Moku o Keawe...

Fresh poi. Kalo pa'i'ai at the Haloa Festival. I can almost taste it...

A master artisan shows an interested festival attendee how to use a whetstone to smooth a stone club at the Grow Hawai'i Festival at Bishop Museum...

The versatile coconut. The inner fibrous part of the husk can be rolled into sennit to make strong rope or cordage for lashing canoes or tying up a whole host of things...

Good use of a stroller. Pack 'em in...

From the shores of Hilo, Hawai'i...

Three visitors to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park prepare their offering at the Jaggar Museum visitor center and lookout over Halema'uma'u Crater at Kilauea which has been spewing out tons of sulfur dioxide everyday... They light a small fire with newspaper and bundle up their incense to ignite it... After igniting their incense, they pass it over to another on the other side of the wall... Then they put out their fire... The burning incense gets put into various positions and holders such as stuck in oranges and papaya... The National Park Ranger has a word with the women about their pyro-offering... Looks like a combination of Asian and Hawaiian influence. Orange, papaya, persimmon and incense mixed with a bag of poi, an orchid flower lei and a quarter pound of poke (raw fish)...

The construction of a traditional Hawaiian hale, or house. This one is at the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. A similiar structure is being built at Pu'ukohola Heiau which is also a National Park. It is part of the restoration of damage to the heiau which occurred during the last big earthquake. This hale is at Volcano near the hula mound. Traditional thatching included utilizing ti leaf, pili grass, or loulu palm fronds. I'm not sure if these are loulu fronds or something else like hala. I wouldn't use hala because it also means to pass. Like in death. It would be the house of passing or house of death. No thank you...