My Hawaiian Connection

A friend, neighbor from across the street, asked me where my interest in Hawaiian applique quilting came from. The short story is that Wayne & I went to Maui several times (work for him) and I bought the quilt book while there the last time. I needed a project and the book jumped off the shelf at me. I have a sister-in-love, Carna, who spent many years of her early adulthood in Hawaii, and I knew that I could count on her to make use of a pillow if I only made one square or a wall hanging if the square count rose to two or three.

But like all stories I have a longer one, which may really answer the question and pose a few more I'm sure. Our first trip to Hawaii was in 1974 and was just the island of Oahu. It was charming and touristy and a lovely vacation that Cargill paid for. Wayne had won the trip on a sales contest.

It was many years before we went back again; I think 1998 and this time to Maui and the Kapalua Bay Resort. Business again for Wayne, but pure vacation for me! Our room was on the second or even third floor with a perfect line of sight out to the ocean. With the binoculars I could watch the whales breach and splash from the comfort of my own porch. We did a couple whale watching tours. Matt commented that my picture of a whale could just as easily be a log floating in the ocean. OK, I don't have the money invested in a camera that he has much less say anything of the talent that he has.

The second trip, oh, my, I had such big plans. The whales had been such a spiritual experience for me. I planned to watch and watch and journal and journal. But like most experiences, you can't go home again. Our room faced the large open space that had been quite beautiful in it's own right last time, but this time was being developed into... you guess it - condos. The room was on ground level and I had a less than lovely view of the construction fence. I must say that along the ridge line and in my sight was a row of "pine?" trees, which did grant me some journal entries on my meditations of them.

After the pine trees gave way to boredom, I found the gift shop and the paperback book rack. They had several books on Hawaiian royalty and at $3.99, I could afford to go wild. So I bought and read four of them. It was fun. What history major doesn't enjoy biographies? They introduced me to the native spirituality of Huna but nothing of any real meat.

A couple years later, I was at Matt & Andrea's for a couple weeks. Wayne had given me a gift certificate to Borders, and Matt & I went out on a Border's run. I had several books in my arms (can't buy just one!) when I noticed I had a book called "Huna Code in Religions." I didn't want to buy that. I tried to put the book back on the shelf, but honestly - it kept on jumping out at me. So I decided that there must be a reason for me to read it. I bought the book and my life hasn't been quite the same since. It is written by a man with an interesting name, Max Freedom Long. As I frequently do, I began to read other books written by Mr. Long.

One bit of history, I had been seeing a spiritual director for several years at this point so had someone that I trusted deeply to talk to about all types of subjects but particularly spiritual ones. I had read a great deal on Buddhism (Tibetan) and Taoism, in addition to the more mainstream Judaism and Muslim writers.

The piece of Huna that has meant the most to me was the idea of the body having three selves - the lower self who controls all the autotomic responses and emotions but not the ability to think only to react. The middle self who controls the thinking rational processes (the one we think we are) and finally, the higher self who actually resides outside of our physical body (somewhat like an aura but not really) and is the connection to the great choir of higher selves who in turn are in contact with God or the Creator of all.

The interesting point that Mr. Long makes is that the lower self is the one who can contact the higher self not the middle self who thinks it runs the show! So to get into contact with your higher self - you, the middle self, must learn to contact and RESPECT the lower self. It was suggested that you name your lower self and that you ask and then listen for the name that the lower self would like to be called. Well, I did and the name "Daisy" came back to me. That was entirely too playful for me so I suggested another name. No, the response said, "My name is Daisy." So Daisy is the name of my lower self, and whenever I need her help in controlling some bodily function from breathing to yes, gas, I call on her and remind her of how much she means to our joint well-being. AND yes, she almost always comes through for me.

The line of contact between the lower self and the higher self is "mana" or "aloha." This line is established by - are you ready for this - breathe. What is the most important guage of life, "are you breathing?" What is the gift given in CPR - breath. Well, mana isn't just any breath but intentional breathing, done with the express intention of extending the line of communication from the physical body of the lower self to the higher self, reinforcing and feeding that higher self to do the more erethial work of communing with other higher selves and the Creator.

How does this fit with my quilting? Perhaps, my middle self is just trying to get into the act of feeding the higher self. For sure, the thinking mind is involved but the ability to do the stitches and remain at it the length of time necessary is, I believe a function of my lower self. This quilt will be a gift of mana or aloha from all of me to the greater world of all higher selves.

May the Peace of the Ocean & all it's Creatures Be With You.
Cyn