Mehanaokalā

When I look back on the years of our sisterhood, I cannot help but emosh cry and cry laugh at the same time. I give thanks to our kūpuna and our Mauna for guiding us together in this lifetime. Look at how far we have come, sis. I know so deeply and so profoundly that our friendship is the kind of connection our ancestors prayed for us to have. We have walked alongside one another through three frontlines, two contested cases, two Supreme Court hearings, countless testimonies, sign waving moments, and marches and have stayed true and steady throughout it all.

I love everything about who you are and who you are becoming. I love the children you have brought into this world. I love our chosen family and the joy that our pilina is grounded in.

I believe in you and all of the dreams you are waking into reality, my tita. I will stand with you, any day, on any frontline, for our beloved Hawai‘i. That’s us, across lifetimes.

I love you like I love the mauna.