First NoteWorthy, on the Second of January.

Never mistake motion for action. - Hemingway

J.Krishnamurti, an Empty Heineken, and a Little bit of Independence

            “Did you see where it go?”

            “Nah. But I think so, it went down when he try and catch –“ is barely off my lips before Makalohi glides across the beach and dives easily under the waves.

            It is a perfect blue of a day on O`ahu - the water, the sky, the light - all brilliant and crisp in a multitude of hues: azure, turquoise and periwinkle. Standing along the shoreline in Waimanalo at a child’s birthday party, one of the littler attendees had retrieved an adult’s empty green bottle, using it to play water games. One quick wave, and the empty Heineken buoyed away from the child into the deeper waters just out of reach.

            Makalohi’s brother tried to retrieve the empty bottle, but his little arms and legs, where unable to reach. Unable to stand by and watch, his sister slipped into the ocean to retrieve the unattended mess.

            “Is she looking for something?” a little girl of about six, in a navy and hot pink Hello Kitty bathing suits asks.

Answer the Call

Phone calls are not events as they used to be. You are no longer restricted to the length of the phone cord. There is no phone chair or table, especially designated for the occasion of communication. Now, it is texts between traffic lights, status updates in the midst of a good meal, and phone calls under palm trees to busy streets abroad.

“Did you get my calls?”

“You mean when I called you?” I offered to my beloved friend visiting from O`ahu, whom I thought had misarranged his words.

“No, when I called you.”

“You mean when we called to have you come visit on Kaua`i two years ago,” I smiled, little miss know-it-all.

“Noooo. When I called you and invited you to O`ahu, last year.”

    How was it, between email, cell phones, facebook, twitter, and even the coconut wireless I had missed that call? “No,” I stammered, “No, I didn’t get your calls.”

    It can be like that. We get the horoscope updates or the latest baseball scores. But when a dear one calls to say hello, when they are really saying they are lonely, we cannot hear them over our laundry machine. When our partner calls to say they don’t want to cook dinner, we cannot hear their vulnerable request for nurturing as we huff and puff about yet another thing we need to do - dinner. Sometimes calls for love sound like demands because if we are called to give we are called to receive. Sometimes that call for love, comes from within, and so very often receives a busy signal.