Hō'ailona...

On January 17th of this year, I attended the Ho'oku'ikahi Reconciliation Services for our Beloved Queen Lili'uokalani. I was constantly moving around the church, taking photos of the ceremony, trying to capture the participants, highlights and ceremony itself. At one point, while walking from the front of the church to the back, trying to be discreet, so I could go over to the other side in preparation for a choral group's performance, I suddenly entered a pew and sat down on the left side of the church. It was like a magnet. I was pulled in and sat down for a little while. I thought maybe to rest for a bit. No sooner had I sat down, and as I was watching one of the Kahu speak, while holding my camera in my lap, I suddenly felt something touch my folded left arm.

I initially thought a bug had landed on me, but as I looked down on my arm, there sat a perfectly formed little glistening lizard dropping. I stared at it for awhile, as it seemed out of place, but it caused me to look up on the ceiling, which was about fifteen-feet above me. There, to my pleasant surprise, was a tiny dark figure nestled against the bright light colored ceiling. It was a mo'o. Not just any mo'o either, but the old school mo'o like I used to run around chasing at my grandmother's home when I was small.

My eyes were so bad, that I had to point my telephoto lens up to get a better look. It was then that I noticed the mo'o had its tail ripped off at some point, and it was in the process of growing back. We have had some invasive Day-Glo geckos infiltrate the islands recently, and they attack these mo'o in groups and eat them. I imagined the poor mo'o surviving some type of attack or trauma. 

But for the dropping on my arm, right in front of me, on the only place I would have really noticed it, I would never have noticed that solitary mo'o at all, quietly nestled way up there. How that little dropping made it past a giant spinning ceiling fan also perplexed me as the mo'o was above the fan. I later scanned the ceiling for the rest of the night, looking for any dark figures on the light colored cathedral ceiling paint, and didn't notice any other mo'o that night.

It was a beautiful Hō'ailona, or Divine Sign for me. It was my grandmother, reminding me of her mo'o laden home, and that my Mother and Father were now lovingly reunited with her. I could rest my weary Heart. It was also a sign that our beautiful Native Hawaiian religion, culture and beliefs fit perfectly within my Christian beliefs, as well as many aspects of the Anglican Church, as founded by our Beloved Kamehameha the 4th and Queen Emma. I have come to a complete understanding and reconciliation of my Spiritual World. Here was our beautiful mo'o honoring our Queen in the quiet of the night. Observing all below.

It was also a message, with the broken and torn tail, now regrowing beautifully, that my own journey has taken me to the depths of despair, pain, suffering and death. Yet I emerged a survivor, albeit battered, tattered and worn. I am regrowing my Spirit. My Body. My Hope. My Faith. My Love.  Slowly and surely, just as that mo'o tail grows.

It was also a message from our Beloved Queen. Our Hawaiian Nation has suffered great trauma and loss. But if we choose to follow the Aloha and Forgiveness of our Beautiful Queen, we will restore ourselves, and regrow our Hawaiian Nation. It is inevitable and it is coming. And much like that stubby misshapen mo'o tail, we may not emerge exactly how we left off, or exactly how we once were, but we will emerge stronger, wiser, and unlike any other Nation in the World. Founded on Ke Akua's Love. A Love known to the World as Aloha. 

Mahalo Queen Lili'uokalani... 

Mahalo Ke Akua...

Mahalo my Beautiful Little Quiet Survivor Mo'o...