Category Archives: Friendships

Weekly Photo Challenge: ‘Ohana (Family) 3

Chinese New Year, Family, Friendships, Hawaii, Joy, photography • Tags: , ,
My_ohana

An old picture of my ‘ohana, edited to protect them.

‘Ohana is family, but not just those with blood ties. It includes calabash cousins, the people close to our hearts, the ones frequently invited to share the food at our table. Today ‘ohana also loosely describes any place where you belong like your child’s school community or your work community. Therefore, all of my ‘ohana are not pictured.

‘Ohana embraces all aspects of affection and being connected. The origin of the word comes from ‘oha, or corm of the taro plant. Cecilia Kapua Lindo explained this in great detail in “The Spirit of ‘Ohana and the Polynesian Voyagers” for those who want to learn more about Hawaiian culture.

Obviously, family is very important is every culture. Reading Ms. Lindo’s article made me keenly aware of cultural parallels especially when she mentioned that the first written record of taro came from China.

Gau
Blue Double Fish Water Feature

Chinese New Year is a time to honor family too. The celebrations begin days before the New Year which officially begins on January 31, 2014. I’ll be celebrating with some of our extended ‘ohana. Of course I will be sharing gau with my family to help us stick together. This year my new addition to celebrate is this blue double fish water feature representing tenacity and happy union for marriage, family and business. The Conch Shell at the top represents safe travel, wisdom and good judgement. I wish all of you Gong Xi Fa Cai or Kung Hei Fat Choi during the Year of the Wooden Horse. May it be a year of peace, joy, harmony and prosperity for all of you.

Josh R’s post at The Daily Post inspired this post. Be sure to read it for your own inspiration.

Top 10 Reasons I Hate Election Years

Family, Friendships, Media Use, Politics, Social Change • Tags: , ,

 

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  • 10. People stop listening to reason!
  •  9. All sides act like bullies and try to sway voters with put-downs instead of logic, setting bad examples for our children.
  •  8. Families and friends make a game out of turning on each other, instead of supporting each other, again setting bad examples.
  •  7. People argue with emotions instead of with facts, and too many politicians campaign totally on emotions rather than facts.
  •  6. People send chain e-mails without checking the facts first.
  •  5. Both sides ignore the real issues, and many in the news media join in instead of reporting facts.
  •  4. The campaign ads do not give reliable sources.
  •  3. We lose at least one year of action while our leaders are campaigning and fighting each other.
  •  2. Too few focus on the good both sides have done and instead focus only on the negatives.
  •  1. It divides our country, families, and friends at a time we cannot afford to be divided.

Wonderful Vacation! Now Back to Life in Paradise!

Family, Friendships, Fun Stuff, Gratitude, Wordless Wednesday • Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Washington Monument as seen from National Mall in front of Smithsonian Castle

Vacation is a wonderful thing and returning to life post-vacation is always hard. Throw in a six-hour time difference, eighteen days away from home, and the beginning of the school year, and you’ll have an idea of where my head has been the last few days.

The trip however was well worth the jet lag! I got a chance to visit with my oldest brother and his family, to spend time with old friends, and to explore D.C., Boston, and Maine, along with a little of New Hampshire with the kids. They rode their first subway. We explored four of the Smithsonian Museums and toured the national monuments via of moonlight tour. We walked the Freedom Trail and we drove down to Plymouth, then up to Maine, where we met friends and hiked in the White Mountain National Forest. All in all a wonderful vacation! I took a thousand pictures, but don’t worry, I am not going to bore you with that many.

First Smithsonian Museum Visited

Lincoln Memorial at Night

Old Mother Goose was real! Who knew?

Did you know Old Mother Goose was based on the real person? Apparently, she was! I walked the Freedom Trail decades ago, but somehow I missed this tidbit until I went with the kids.

Boston, MA: The Old State House

Two of my favorite things!

A Reminder from Plymouth, MA: Thanksgiving Isn’t Thanksgiving for All!

View from Bradbury Mountain State Park in Maine

Hiking in White Mountains National Forest

Reflections: Where Do I Begin? 10

Bullying, Education, Faith, Family, Friendships, Gratitude, Healing, Movies, Schools, The Oxygen Mask Project • Tags: , , , ,

The last two days I have sat in this swing trying to decide how much I want to share with you to explain why I have been MIA. I realize no matter what I say it will not fully explain everything. It is impossible to see through someone else’s eyes or to completely understand their feelings no matter how much they share.

We recently passed the one year anniversary of leaving my daughter’s former school. We also passed the one year anniversary of my brother’s first surgery due to his cancer, and it has been one year since my fall and subsequent lumbar compression fracture. We are all three still facing challenges. Yet, we are all on the road to recovery.

Those who read M’s blog know she wrote a letter to her former school on her blog around the time of the anniversary. I am so proud that she chose to do so. She released her frustration and is continuing to work toward her goals although overcoming bullying is not easy.

Her anniversary coincided with the release of Lee Hirsch’s movie Bully in local theaters. Those who have been reading my blog know that the poor response it received in Honolulu disappointed me. I sincerely hope the schools will do a better job once it is on video.

I am especially disappointed that M’s former school made no effort to take the students to see it as I encouraged them to do, but they are making baby steps toward their bullying problem according to the chaplain and the elementary school assistant dean. I know both of them have their hearts in the right place and they both still express concern for M.

The high school dean is a different story, but I will not get into that here other than to say that M. still deserves an apology from the school and my request for this has fallen on deaf ears. Still, I will not give up. A new headmaster will be arriving in July, and I hope he will see that giving my daughter a formal apology is the right thing to do.

My brother had his fourth surgery recently, but he is on the mend and hopefully in a few weeks he will have his last surgery.

I was 80% better until I had a bad virus a few weeks ago. Now I am starting over with my walks and my exercises. I have faith I will get back to 80% since it really is only reconditioning and not another injury. I am still aiming for at least 90%, if not 100%. I am taking care of myself as I promised when I joined the Oxygen Mask Project.

Overall, life is good. M. is interacting with her friends again. I had a fabulous mother’s day. M. cooked my breakfast. My hubby and son and I went to see The Avengers. M. saw it the day before with her friend. Hubby even cooked lobster for dinner, so yes, life is good and I am still grateful.