(POSTED 9/14/06)
Emma Yuen, now is a graduate student at Stanford, weighs in with her latest reflections on Hawai`i.
For the last three years, I have gone to college on the mainland, and have come home to Hawai`i only for a few months every year. Still, Hawai`i feels so much more real to me, it is like my first language, where everything has more meaning. The sound of trees touching and leaves swishing is not just wind, but the endless tradewinds that we eternally welcome home from their long open ocean migration. The singing outside is not just a bird calling but a thousand memories of sitting or waiting near trees that shelter flocks of mynahs.
My time on the mainland, like learning a second language, has made me more aware of the way I perceive Hawai`i. I notice that I compare almost everything to it, my starting point and center, like converting miles to meters. Because of this, coming to Hawai`i gives me a sense of ease and comfort, where I am awakened from a dream.
What’s even more important, I can truly be myself here. I can be Emma, who watches waterfalls until the rest of the world seems to swim upwards as my eyes adjust to the constant falling. I can visit my friends, the opihi at the mouth of Nanue valley. I can jump off a rock I named `Eheu and feel like I am hovering in the strong winds forced up the pali of Honokanenui valley.
This visit home, I hiked along the northern Kohala coast, where the waves were so powerful yet jumbled and confused by the uneven coast. There, the white wash tumbles and slides onto the smooth surface of waves near shore, and beyond, the white caps break out of the blue ocean like eternal schools of leaping dolphins. The whales have been late this year, but they also emerged out of the deep ocean that day.
These experiences make me feel so blessed to be part of Hawai`i. When I open myself up with love and appreciation, I can be awake to all the infinite wonders surrounding me. I notice how the calls of the koa`e flying around the highest pali sound like faraway kisses, and learn where the wild fruits grow in the gulches.
Today, I observe the cycle of the hau flowers blooming bright yellow in the morning and fading to a deep red by night, then falling along the sea cliffs. Experiencing Hawai`i makes it a part of you, so live in a way that continually strengthens your attachment to this place, that celebrates it and respects it. Let your knowledge of your surroundings become deeper and your expression of life richer.
This love may make you vulnerable to sadness as Hawai`i is changed, as some of the loved places are transformed and the lives inhabiting them extinguished. However, the more people who truly love Hawai`i, the more people who will respect it.
So fully appreciate Hawai`i and inspire others to be filled with love, to feel a rising joy when gazing at the strong slopes of our island mountains and feel centered while watching the currents and whales slowly circling our coasts.
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