H Ā H Ō L A N I

10 years ago today I went on a journey that set my on the path of my life where I spent seven months with 4 other people and thousands of birds on the last atoll in the Hawaiian Archipelago, Hōlanikū (Kure). I was fresh out of graduating college and had just returned from my time out on Pihemanu (Midway Atoll) for a summer Ola Nā Iwi course when I got an email about an emergency volunteer situation. One of the crew members decided that she didn’t want to stay through the winter season so they were looking for someone to get it together within a couple of weeks to get out there. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I decided to write back because I could feel my kūpuna guiding me back to Papahānaumokuākea. I was not in shape, had no field training experience, and legit was not conditioned for hard work in the elements but I felt the call deep in my being and I listened. There are so many stories to tell from out there but I spoke of this one today so I was inspired to share. One day the crew was out on the ocean doing a dolphin survey. I wasn’t feeling so good after the first trip so I decided to stay back. It was the first time in my life that I was standing alone (but not alone) as the only living human being on an island. The immensity and kaona of that moment is still coming to me in my dreams. I remember laying on the earth and breathing with Papa, opening my sensory body to record the stillness in that space, the song of the elemental nations surrounding me, and the emotion of feeling so small and so vast at the same time. I felt connected to everything micro to macro. It felt...maoli. That was one of the moments that affirmed my trust in the journey and it is the one that gave me courage when I doubted by own strength and perseverance. That moment taught me what it feels like to be fully present. And 10 years later, I am seeing that now more than ever it is so important to remember and create that ‘beingness’ no matter if I am alone or surrounded by thousands. I carry that memory in my heart, in my very cells - and I call it back now with love and many thanks. Here is to remembering union wherever we are. Ola Hōlanikū.