got summertime blues??

“the cure for anything is salt water —

sweat, tears, or the sea.”

isak dinesen

na wahine.

got a nifty little gift book
during our aloha adventure.

na wahine [the women]:
hawaiian proverbs & inspirational quotes
celebrating women in hawaii.

here's my favorite tidbit from it today:

nana no a ka 'ulu i paki kepau.
look for the gummy breadfruit.

[advice for a young woman:
look for a man who has substance, like gummy breadfruit,

it is a sign of maturity.]

a little background on breadfruit
from islandbreath.com:

the hawaiian ulu, or breadfruit (artocarpu altilis),
is a fast-growing tropical tree in the fig family,
which can grow to 80 feet tall.

the leaves are beautiful: large, deep green & deeply lobed.

the fruit is round & light green,
about the size of a honeydew melon,
& can weigh up to ten pounds.

milky, gummy sap begins to leak from the ripe fruit.

the fruit is starchy, & tastes a little like potato
or freshly baked bread when cooked,

thence the name breadfruit.


image source: colleeninhawaii @ flickr.com

re-entry to the mainland.

i've been home from hawai'i for three days.
i'm no longer confused, but still rather dazed.

i know, i know. i can't expect sympathy
upon my return from paradise,
no matter how jangly my jetlag is making me.

& i don't. i'm just sayin'
i've got those i-need-a-vacation-
following-my-vacation blues.

but what a wonderful excursion.
a week with my big sister

sight-seeing.
history-learning.
people-watching.
flora-gazing.
music-enjoying.
eating.
shopping.
drinking.
beaching.
sunning.
sailing.
exploring.
luau-ing.

laughing.
laughing.
laughing.

it was full.
it was exhausting.
it was fun fun fun.

we now return to our regularly scheduled program.

laundry.
groceries.
work.
exercise.
the office cleanup project.
the photo catch-up project.

& prepping for our weeklong family road trip vacation,
which begins a week from today [zoinks].

breathe in.
breathe out.

try to get organized &
keep moving forward
while my brain is still stuck in
hula time.

ah, hula time.

mahalo nui loa, hawai'i.
love you as much as ever.

now, off to reality.


image source: me, maui 2010.

thoughts of aloha.

thinking of hawai'i ...

where i'll be in five days.
where i'll celebrate my 43rd birthday in ten days.
where i'll be for a week with just my big sister,
in celebration of her upcoming milestone birthday.

plenty to do to prepare.
lists, lists, lists & lists.

& the discovery that the new u.s. poet laureate,
w.s. merwin, lives on a former pineapple plantation
atop a dormant volcano in maui.

here's a little something that seems appropos
from our hawaiian pulitzer-prize-winning poet laureate:

Something I’ve not done
is following me
I haven’t done it again and again
so it has many footsteps
like a drumstick that’s grown old and never been used
In late afternoon I hear it come closer
at times it climbs out of a sea
onto my shoulders
and I shrug it off
losing one more chance
Every morning
it’s drunk up part of my breath for the day
and knows which way
I’m going
and already it’s not done there
But once more I say I’ll lay hands on it
tomorrow
and add its footsteps to my heart
and its story to my regrets
and its silence to my compass


image source: me, kauai 2007.

pretty young twang.

you should always give your love away
give your love away
i don't know why
maybe it just works that way
but you should always give your love away
give your love away

the skin will only come off if you shed it
happiness will only come in if you let it


catch twang twang shockaboom
friday 7.15 10p
@ austin's continental club


image source: ttsab fb pg
chorus lyrics for "always give your love away" by david garza

love after love.

in lieu of my monthly one little word posting,

i offer this lovely piece of poetry by derek walcott,
because this is how i want to be:

the time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. eat.
you will love again the stranger who was your self.
give wine. give bread. give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
sit. feast on your life.


image source: shabby chic @ flickr.com

celebrate the everyday － july.

it's july, 2010. how will you celebrate being a woman?

july 3 － compliment your mirror day
how about "you're beautiful" [because you are!]?

july 7 － chocolate day
every day is chocolate day at our house!

july 13 － embrace your geekiness day
i've got a lot of fodder for this special day ...
but if you don't, then just embrace a geek!

july 17 － yellow pig day
this special day is the brainchild of a pair of princeton mathematicians ...
hey, didn't the geeks already get a day?

july 18 － national ice cream day
celebrate frozen dairy goodness ... gelato will do, too!

july 25 － full moon [the buck/thunder moon]
or maybe the independence moon? seems a little ameri-centric ...

july 30 － cheesecake day
i'm thinking chocolate cheesecake a la mode ... mmmmm.


remember, where there is connection, there is power.
where there is power, there is hope for change. for ourselves, & for our world.
we are all connected. we are all powerful.

until my next post, be well, be happy & be hopeful.


image source: jpuangco @ flickr.com