Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that past mistakes have consequences and what we have been and done does not just disappear because of good intentions now. [Sometimes it takes a long time to get back to pono.] It seems to be a given. We’re clumsy oafs, us humans. Often we break things without meaning to. Our words and our actions break hearts and shatter lives – our own and those of the ones we love.
I am re-reading life coach and best-selling author Martha Beck’s 2001 book, FINDING YOUR OWN NORTH STAR: Claiming the Life You Were Meant To Live. One of the running themes in the book reminds me of Marcus Tullius Cicero’s thought that “your best advisor is yourself.” The only problem with this thought is that for many of us, there is a civil war happening inside us and it’s hard to hear the advice from yourself when there’s all that shouting…
“Follow your passion”…”take the path with a heart.” We hear that a lot, those of us who are looking for meaning and mana to add to our ordinary lives. Are they the same thing? Do they mean what we’ve been told they mean? Does this advice make sense?
Kahikinui is a land district that is approximately 22,860 acres between Kipahulu and Kaupo on the southeastern side of the island. It is bound to the north by Haleakala National Park, to the west by Ulupalakua Ranch and to the east by Haleakala Ranch. The Pacific Ocean laps along its southern boundary.
Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): a growing awareness that all phenomena are empty and illusory and the only meaning and mana in any situation is what the people involved bring to it. [It’s a cool thing to realize that we humans are the arbiters of the meaning and mana in our own lives.] The search for meaning and mana is a very human thing. It’s been going on for centuries now. The words themselves are so nebulous that it’s hard…
It’s happening again. This is the 18th year that the annual statewide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Poetry contest will be organized by volunteer teachers, writers and artists who call themselves “The International Peace Poem Project.” Small donations keep them alive. Almost every school in Hawaii is invited to participate in the contest and there is no entry fee. Every student winner in the contest from each class gets a certificate of honor and a prize for their winning…
Another IPS (Inner Peace Symptom): an understanding that the willingness to stand still in the middle of uncertainty without giving in to despair allows for new opportunities to show up and gives you the space you need to notice them. [If you focus on fears and doubts, there really is no room in your head for paying attention when a new door opens.] Apple founder Steve Jobs had an interesting take on how to deal with the uncertainty of life. …
A few years ago, I was dragooned (tricked!) into participating in a theater production of the “Mama Monologues,” an evening of dramatic readings and performances by assorted creative folks on Maui that was put together by a friend of mine, Pat Masumoto. Pat, who was a force of nature, strong-armed all of her friends to participate in this annual production that she organized and produced at the ‘Iao Theater in old Wailuku town. It was actually a part of a…
