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Dancing in the Sea of Life
Halau i Ka Pono Hula Newsletter February 2013 | |
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Pele's Heartbeat Photo by G. Brad Lewis
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Me he lau no ke Ko'olau ke aloha.
Love is like the ends [fingertips] of the Ko'olau breeze.
Love is like a zephyr - gentle and invisible but present nevertheless.
'Olelo No'eau - Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings, #2153
Collected, translated and annotated by Mary Kawena Pukui
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One of the first times I can remember my heart being broken was when I was eight years old. My mother, sister, and I were sitting on our porch on a warm Hawaiian afternoon. Something happened - I think that my mother scolded me. A deep sadness welled up in my heart and overflowed into large tears that slowly ran down my cheeks. I sat still, teardrops streaming. My mother laughed. She cupped her hands under my chin and said, "Oh look at the crocodile tears, I'm catching them."
It seemed as though she was laughing at me. I felt frustrated and the tears kept flowing. For a long time after that I held a grudge against my mother.
About five years ago, I was at my parents' home in beautiful Kukaiau helping care for my dying father. Cancer had metastasized to his bones and he was in a lot of pain. It was one of his bad days. My little 8-year old nephew Bruddah did something playful and unexpectedly startled my father. Dad yelled at him in a very harsh way.
 | Bruddah and Grampa, 2008
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Bruddah ran into the bedroom. I found him sobbing on the bed. His little heart was broken and he looked so vulnerable. I found myself wanting to laugh, though not at him. The impulse seemed so incongruous. I knew Bruddah was in pain but he also looked so adorable. Suddenly I remembered when I was eight and how I felt when I thought my mother laughed at my tears. This recollection restrained my laughter. We sat together and I gently told him that Grampa didn't mean to yell at him like that. It was only because Grampa was sick and in pain. I reassured him that Grampa loved him very much.
I also thought twice about that "grudge" I held against my mother.
Learning the ways of the heart takes courage and tenacity. Standing your ground or staying and opening to pain is a challenge. We think running away from physical or emotional pain will make it go away. We distract ourselves with our electronic devices. We develop habits that don't help us like replaying the painful scenario ad infinitum and blaming others. This dead-end inner conversation only prolongs the pain.
Standing your ground with pain cultivates a fearless heart. Meditation is one way to practice staying when the impulse is to run. And this courage builds over time. I find when strong feelings like anger arise, it's useful to take time and feel it in your body. This helps short-circuit the story in your mind. Feel your heart pounding, your palms sweating, your head feeling thick, your eyes narrowing. And give yourself some empathy and kindness. Acknowledge it's a difficult situation and you're having a hard time.
Take a break. Go for a walk. Be attentive and mindful about your feet walking on the great earth. For a few minutes, focus on your breathing. Focus especially on the out-breath. Come back to your body and check-in and see how it's doing. All of this helps to ground you and gives you time to re-balance.
Meditation strengthens your courage to be open to pain and see clearer. Eighteen years ago I went to Auschwitz on the first Zen Peacemaker Bearing Witness Retreat. I never would have gone to such a terrifying place had I not started to meditate for a couple of years earlier. At Auschwitz I began to learn about forgiveness and letting go. In Poland people say that "a broken heart is a whole heart." Feeling a broken heart is a way that we can discover resilience and compassion.
Hula is very much about the wisdom of the body and of the heart and its relationship to the earth. We learn in hula to become embodied - knowing where our body is in space and time without looking at mirrors. As we flow with our inner and outer music, we listen to what can't be heard and see what can't be seen. The dancer is the story in the telling of it. Pervading this sacred dance of body, heart, and mind is an expansive love that's indivisible from who we are.
Malama Pono (take care of body, mind and heart), June Kaililani Tanoue Kumu Hula P.S. I'm reposting the Halau slideshow of 2012 photos accompanied by Keoki Apokolani Carter's songs, "Is There a Feeling" and "Mahina Love" in case you missed it last month. |
 | | G. Brad Lewis |
Have you noticed the beautiful photographs gracing the front of my newsletters for the past few months? That's thanks to Brad Lewis, an internationally recognized volcano and nature photographer. His images have appeared on the covers of major magazines worldwide, have received numerous awards, and been widely exhibited. Interviews with Brad have been broadcast on the NBC Today Show, CBS Evening News, Disney and Discovery Channels, and many other networks.
Brad's goal is to further the viewer's understanding and appreciation of the natural world, and to contribute photographs on a global scale that help us comprehend the bigger picture. He has chosen Kilauea Volcano on Hawaii Island as his primary subject. "No where else on Earth is creation happening on a continual basis at such a rapid rate. I find it crucial that there exist visual reminders that the Earth is alive and fulfilling an agenda of its own."
Brad's parents came from Idaho. He was born in Utah in 1958 and grew up in the Wasatch Mountains and the deserts of southern Utah. Being surrounded by the beauty of nature was always a priority for him. He's lived in Hawaii, Alaska, and Utah and travels to each location several times a year.
He made what he thought was going to be a quick trip to the Big Island in 1982. He fell in love with the island and when Kilauea Volcano erupted a few months later, he was hooked. He began his lifelong love affair with the volcano by taking remarkable photographs through the past 20 years. I have a couple of them on the wall in my study here in Chicago.
 | | Kilauea by G. Brad Lewis |
June Tanoue: How did you capture that amazing photograph of the lava heart in the air?
Brad Lewis: I captured the image "Pele's Heartbeat," at the Pu'u O'o vent of Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. The spatter cone was less than a day old when I helicoptered into the eruption site, with camping gear, two camera systems, and a hundred rolls of film. Newly formed spatter cones are one of my favorite features on Kilauea, the most active volcano on the planet.
When I arrived at the scene, there was no volcanic activity going on. The eruption had stopped. I could tell it had been awesome hours before. I wondered if I had just wasted a thousand dollars on the helicopter? It didn't really matter. This is the chance I take every time I go to the eruption site. I sat down upon the warm lava and waited, absorbing the awesome and raw beauty around me. My patience paid off. Towards evening, lava started to explode out of the center of the cone. I was fortunate to press the shutter at the exact moment that this particular burst of lava (30 feet in diameter) happened to be in the shape of a heart. A true gift from Pele, the volcano goddess.
Lava is one of those things that is amazing to see. I think every human should see it..it stops you in your tracks - this is living earth, earth's blood, a force that creates wonderful things, and yes, it can be scary and destructive too (which can be a great reminder to respect nature).
When I'm out in nature its like 'Ahh I can finally breathe! I can replenish and heal.' I've been fortunate with this volcano focus and being published and featured in nature magazines. I remember Newsweek when they first introduced photo essays, one of the first was mine. I had this copy sitting around and I wasn't even thinking of it as the copy with all my photos. I was looking through it and it was full of grim human news. I came to the double page of my volcano photos and I got this hit before I was even conscious of them being my photos. My first thoughts were 'Hey, check this out..this is the Earth and this is where we live and there's a lot going on here, stuff that is beyond us.' Natural beauty is so positive. You don't have to be at a national park for profound beauty; nature is everywhere.
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About Us
Halau i Ka Pono - the Hula School of Chicago is a sister program of the Zen Life & Meditation Center in Oak Park, IL. Kumu Hula June Kaililani Tanoue established the school in 2009 and has been teaching hula since 2003.
Hula is the art of Hawaiian dance expressing all that we see, hear, taste, touch, and feel. Hula and healing go hand in hand in the halau. The dance connects us to the grounding energy of the earth and opens us to the warm spirit of Aloha (love). Come join us!
We enjoy hearing your comments and thoughts! Email them to the editor. Mahalo!
 | | Shay Niimi Wahl |
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