Makua o’o

 “Sing to me a song of sandy beaches, gentle breezes ‘auhea ‘oe?”

I began 1995 walking a white sandy beach on the Kaanapali coast of the island of Maui. Newly divorced, I dreamed up a new adventure and new partner. It was Pete, my husband today whose hand I held on those sandy beaches. I have Venus very closely connected with Jupiter in the 11th House; adventures, hopes, dreams and shiny foreign people, places and things beckon me!

We have learned so much about what it takes to sustain an adventure over the decades. Perhaps it was the meeting of another important person on that white Sandy beach in 1995 that taught me about growing up?

Betty Kawohiokalani Ellis Jenkins was a retired elementary school teacher who never really retired. When we met she and I were teaching adults at two different resort hotels on Ka’anapali Beach. “Aunty Betty” was working as kupuna Hawaiian elder sharing Hawaiian culture. The Poi Bowl as a tradition and practice of sharing food (from the Poi bowl) came with it the protocols: no arguments or harsh words when the cover was removed from the open bowl. That practice and those protocols were the same ones I was preparing to teach in my new job as training manager at a large resort.

My elder cousin prompted me to seek Aunty out and ask her permission to share my version of our Poi Bowl tradition. 

Nearly 30 months later Aunty’s permission and her family practice given to her by her mother, have been passed to me. I was privileged to meet and follow Aunty Betty in the practice of Makua o’o, the extension of her teachings from the poi bowl. Today I have absorbed those tools into s lifetime practice. 

Perhaps you are ready to begin, or pick up where you might have lost a stitch?

Makua o’o are tomorrow’s kupuna in training today. Makua o’o is urged to be in honest prepared under the tutorage of kupuna today. Here are a basic set of tools or life skills to consider during that training period:

Observe with a keenness of attention to details 

Think creatively with a sense of intellectual curiosity, interest and concern.

Listen carefully to those words spoken as well as those unspoken

Mime and personify those who exempt the highest caliber of po’okela

Question for clarification and clearness of thought for decision making 

Practice patience and endurance

Engage in good health practices 

Know that wisdom is found in many places 

Feel the heartbeat of the culture

Believe in Ke Akua