Ephemeral Life...

Rest, Respite, Comfort, at Ease, Free from Pain...

Tonight I choose to celebrate Beautiful Carmen, also knows as "Aunty Honey", a matriarch of the Nae'ole 'ohana. I am not sure if I ever posted or shared this particular photo because as a photographer, it had technical issues. However, it serves no purpose as a bunch of "ones and zeros" in digital format on one of my many back up drives. To share is to give it Life. To give her Life. After losing my own Precious Mother in 2010, I was surprised at home many Beautiful Mothers entered my own Life to Beautifully help to fill that powerful void and help me Heal. Aunty Honey reminded so much of my own Beautiful Mother in so many large and small ways. Through Loving her, I was able to help Love my own Mother, here on this physical Realm, in physical form again, until Carmen's passing two years ago. I am grateful for having the Beautiful Na'eole 'ohana in my Life. I am also very grateful for sharing their Beautiful Mother with all of us ...

Today I am Honoring and Celebrating my Beautiful Friend who is like a brother to me. He is still here and very much Alive fortunately, but why wait for someone's ho'olewa to let them know how much you appreciate them. I first met John at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa while we were both attending college there. He was kind, humble, easy going and share my sense of humor. A fellow kanaka, he had a rough upbringing. He and his family had been homeless at one time and lived in a bus on a vacant lot for quite a long time. He used to go out and sit under the streetlights on the neighborhood sidewalk to do his school homework in high school. One day, he came home and the bus, their home, had been towed away. He lost all of his belongings, clothes, photos, documents and other household possessions, to never be recovered. He never complained about Life being unfair as long as I have known him. We both bought mountain bikes and would ride them to Diamond Head be...

I believe this photo was taken at Moanalua Gardens around 1969. I am going to try and find the same tree, if it is still there. On the back of the photo, I discovered a note from my Mother, clearly her handwriting, which reads, "Doesn't Kai look grown up?" Just wait until she sees me again in Heaven. I have really grown up...

My Mother and two sisters, Moana and Nalani, Social Distancing since 1965...

Our Father, Elliott Raymond Markell, and his twin sister, Eleanor Markell...

If you ever wondered what Christmas Dinner was at the Kīlauea Military Camp, at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, in 1963, well, now you know....

Get to know your Spirit Guides. Your Guardian Angels. Your 'Aumakua. Your Life will only be Changed for the Beautifully Better...

I woke up early Sunday morning to use the restroom and get a drink of water. When I came back to my bed, someone was sleeping in my spot. Knowing that even Spirits need their Beauty rest, I retired to the couch for the rest of the morning...

Enlightened...

Social Distancing since Two-Years Old...

In Heaven... And Upon Earth... I Have Always... Known... And So Loved... Beautiful You...

When I take my Nightly shower, and gaze out the window as I recite my end of the day Prayers, I have never seen so many lights on in the surrounding neighborhood. I see Lights filled with Hope, Love, Gatherings, Family, Laughing, Sharing, Cooking, Singing, Dancing, Video and Face-Time calls, Stories, Prayers and so many Beautiful things...

I went to tie up the kitchen garbage bag and found this Paper Towel man staring back at me. I asked him to kindly not Scream as he plummets down the trash chute because we have elderly neighbors who might be unnecessarily startled...

Now this must have been unsettling back in the day. Watching television and then you have to go run around and look for your radio before the wave hits...

I was in college almost thirty-years ago. My photography class Professor, gave us a themed assignment for the weekend. One of the themes was "Resurrection" and we had to capture an image which evoked the word for us individually. I talked my dorm roommate and treasured college friend, Tim, to come with me out to the Makapu'u seaside cliffs at about 11:00pm because the full Moon was out. We parked on the desolate roadway, climbed over the guardrail, and slowly made our way down with flashlights, and using the Moonlight where we could.  Once in awhile, a car would approach, and slow down, at the sight of the bobbing lights descending the dark cliffside, then speeding off most likely figuring that we were night fisherman.  I carried my camera and tripod and a small bag, trying not so stumble, trip or slide down the rocky cliff, and slide right into the dark rough ocean to my untimely death.  When we reached the bottom, I set up my tripod, and had Tim car...

One of my Favorite photographs of my Father, Elliott Raymond Markell. Here he is, on his 1946 Harley Davidson Knucklehead, in July of 1952. He rotated through several Harley Davidson bikes and an Indian Motorcycle too. He was trying to woo my Mother and capture her Heart with his cool James Dean vibe.  In actuality, he was a sensitive and soft man, trying to be cool and rebellious. He wrote Poetry and Love letters to my Mother. And she, to him. I read them today in humble witness to the depth and power of their Love. He worked parking cars in a big parking lot, and lifted weights during breaks with a barbell set stashed at his work place. He loved driving all the cars to park them. He often made offers to buy cars and would cycle through different cars, often picking my Mother up for dates in a different car every so often. My father considered himself a "Knucklehead" growing up. He once shared that when he was seven years old, World War II had just broken ou...

My father, Elliott Markell, on the right, with his best friend, on a beach somewhere on Long Island, New York, in a photograph taken by my grandfather, Elliott Markell, Sr. and fortunately still existing.  So Elliott Markell, III, scanned this photograph to share while my first-son, Elliott Markell, IV, is in his room catching virtual fish on Animal Crossing on his his Nintendo Switch.  If you wonder why both boys are smiling and happy in this capture, that is because they were both drinking cold refreshing Coca-Cola from old stock that my Grandfather stashed away from the Turn-of-the-Century. Back when Coke was made with Coca leaves...

The more I am stuck indoors, the more I find myself losing track of what day it is. What week it is. Even what month it is. So in an abundance of caution, I just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween already...

Never Forget...

Yes... I Love You... Very Much... Too...

Extreme Social Distancing in Waikīkī...

Up in the Wao akua... Where the akua... The Elemental Deities... Dwell... Now where my Beloved... Sister Nalani... Resides as well...

I choose this moment to share, and Honor, my Beautiful Great-Great-Grandmother, Adelia Bryant. I only have this Beautiful photo of her, and not much else. I can only imagine the hardships she encountered in her Life. The suffering and sacrifices to help the family not only thrive, but more importantly, to survive. But for her, I would not be here right now. As I gaze upon her countenance, I can feel her Presence aside me, bringing many tears forth, in recognition of her Guidance and Love. I Love her Immensely... Her family and lineage includes the famous American Poet, William Cullen Bryant, born in 1794 in Massachusetts. I have a little book of one of his poems, Thanatopsis, published in 1894, from my own father. I have included the beginning of the Poem and the ending here as it is quite lengthy. William wrote Thanatopsis about Death. It is believed he wrote it at the age of seventeen. So young, and a Poem about Death. That speaks volumes... William ...

She has Returned... As I Seek my Refuge... In Her Fragile Heart... And my only Salvation... In Her Soft Sacred... Eternally Wanting Kiss...

I found this old photo from about twenty-years ago. While working at the Burial Sites Program, my co-worker, Kana'i Kapeliela, and I emerged from investigating a lava tube in a large South Kona development. It was a little before 10:00pm at night when we finally made it out. We had started at the entrance about 5:00pm, after the construction site had shut down for the day, because the passages would branch off and split up and lead into all directions. You could always see roof-fall inside of the tubes where potions of the ceiling fell down inside. We never wanted to be unknowingly crawling under a roadway with heavy trucks driving directly above us, as you could easily be killed. So we began our investigations at night, spending sometimes four to five hours crawling through just one tube system to confirm the existence or absence of cultural remains, especially ancestral Native Hawaiian human skeletal remains. We hadn't extensively investigated and explored lava...

I have Borne... Witness... To Such... Breathtaking Beauty... In this Humbling Life...

I found these photographs that my Father had taken years ago in Washington, D.C. at a Hawaiian Festival. Posting them in case someone recognizes themselves or a loved one and wants to download, save, print or otherwise preserve a memory that would otherwise be buried in a cardboard box until oblivion. Shared with Love...