What Aloha Means to Me

This one is for Yvette. Many people have pondered the meaning of Aloha. In Hawaiian it is used for hello, goodbye and love. Perhaps the last meaning is the closest to what I miss most about Hawaii. It's about Living with "aloha." It's about kindness for the people around you and for the environment you live in. It's about giving without asking and not expecting anything in return. It's about the great joy of making other people happy. It's about treating everyone like family. I'm not sure words do this justice so let's try some examples.

When I was a child, my Mom would spend hours picking avocados off of this huge tree in our back yard. We would carefully bag them in grocery sacks that we had been saving for weeks. Then my Mom would send me all over the neighborhood with these heavy bags of avocados for all of the neighbors. Most of the neighbors were like family. We called them Aunty and Uncle just like they were blood relatives and I'd like to think we thought of them as the same.

I ran into a begger downtown as I came out of jury duty. The man had Tourette's syndrome. You could tell by the odd twitch he had. He was homeless and hungry, having been tossed out by his housemate. We walked over to Burger King and I told him to order whatever he wanted. When we were done, we went to the grocery store and I loaded him up with granola bars, juice and breakfast cereal. I called around on my cell phone to find out where to get temporary shelter and job training and made him promise to go.

My mom used to drive my Grandmother around the island. It was a different place back then. Much quieter and no traffic. People were nice and not in such a hurry. We would pack a small lunch and go to the beach park and sit, eat and chat. Grandma was old by then and I don't know how much she could hear but it made us all feel good just to spend time together.

Perhaps it's a small town thing or perhaps just longing for days gone by. Nevertheless, these are the types of things that come to mind when I think of living with Aloha. So, Yvette, these stories are for you "me ke aloha." Live it. Think it. Be it.