Category: BTBC Curriculum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aloha everyone, One of the enduring parts of Aunty’s Building the Beloved Community practice that stuck with folks, even if they only attended a session or two, is the Weatherball (or Weather Ball) and Blue Sky moment. These have become a way of opening circles around the world. Aunty always prefaced this practice the first time by… Read more