Author: Dawn
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Map of the Day 1
Aloha mai kākou! I honor your Gods,I drink at your well,I bring an undefended heart to our meeting place,I have no cherished outcomes,I will not negotiate by withholding, andI am not subject to disappointment. This is a prayer often called “A Prayer of Approach” attributed to the Celts. I’m not sure exactly where it comes… Read more
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Glass of Milk
Aloha mai kākou, I hope all is well with you. I apologize if you have been reading this regularly, because two weeks ago I didn’t post, and it’s been until now that I’m back. However, I’ve been thinking of this blog quite a bit. I just didn’t make the time to sit and write! I… Read more
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E ka gentle breeze e waft mai nei…
Aloha mai kākou, “E ka gentle breeze e waft mai nei…” I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I’m thinking today of the opening line of a mele that once captured Aunty Pua’s ear and na‘au: “E ka gentle breeze e waft mai nei…” from the song Ku‘u Pua i Paoakalani. This beautiful song was… Read more
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Break the Horizon
Once I left Hōkūle‘a, the voyaging canoe, on an airplane. This was before the pandemic. Aunty and I were going to a neighbor island to do a Building the Beloved Community workshop with a partner organization. She had this amazing picture of Hōkūle‘a taken from the air, looking minuscule amongst a sea of deep, dark… Read more
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How to be a Poet
How to Be a Poet By Wendell Berri(to remind myself) i Make a place to sit down. Sit down. Be quiet. You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill—more of each than you have—inspiration, work, growing older, patience, for patience joins time to eternity. Any readers who like your poems, doubt their judgment. What is something that sustains you? Writing has always sustained me in one way… Read more
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Proximity and Hope
Aloha nui nō kākou, “Busy-ness can easily become a cover for mediocrity when you don’t make time for proximity.” – Tulaine Montgomery I wanted to dive deeper into the theme of busy-ness tonight, a sickness of which I am afflicted. It’s just one way that I’ve learned to cope with life, to move forward, always… Read more
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Guts on the Table
20250217 Mondays with Aunty Pua: Guts on the Table Showing our collective light starting with each individualby Kara Pitt-Dandrea (shared by Uncle Poka, and shared here with permission) Don’t go too deep into the darkness; they’re counting on it.It snuffs out the light you bring to the world…And that’s what they’re hoping for.For a moment,… Read more
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“Decolonizing in the dark.”
Do you remember the story from Aunty Pua when she, while blind for a time, was invited to meet the Dalai Lama in Vancouver? And how she made him laugh from his belly with the story of Poha and Popo? The Dalai Lama Principle is to “tell the whole story.” A Native woman, wracked with grief,… Read more
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“How’s your heart, darling?”
“Howʻs your heart, darling?”—2021 quote from the Culturally Relevant Evaluation and Assessment Hawai‘i group where Aunty Pua was a key member/mentor. The Violence of Modern Life There is a pervasive form of modern violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by non-violent methods most easily succumbs: activism and over-work. The rush and pressure of modern life… Read more
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Face to Face
This week and last week have been the most significant of the year so far. I’m on Hawai‘i Island having an experience of ‘ike maka, diving deep into something not just by looking but by embracing it fully. This experience reminds me of Aunty Pua’s poem He Alo a he Alo. Aunty Pua said that she wrote it… Read more