I understand: Each day we live is a smaller (and smaller) fraction of our total. Some posit thatʻs why Time seems to pass faster and Faster and FASTER as we age. But really?! November already? I wake up, coffee and chores, most times go walk, come home, putter and chores, and work research, and before I know it, gotta make dinner.
Our dry spell is deciding what to do. It was a blustery Thursday last, after two and a half weeks of no rain blue clear skies. Air is chill in the mornings as we wait, observe, and adjust as necessary. Skies have been decorated with high high wisps of cirrus, their filters helping dim the sun and cool the air. Bloomings continue in the yard, with 11 old-fashioned orange epidendrums spiking, three aloe, and lots of ʻōpelu, though the latter are about three-fourths pau bloom. Oh and the random pōpōhau (hydrangea) popped up too. But...Howʻs THIS for spectacular??? (mahalo sz)
ʻIeʻie (Freycinetia arborea), related to hala, but a climbing wet forest dweller. Its "flowers" are kinda difficult to observe up close, high as they often are in ʻōhiʻa canopy, up high,
Traditions continue...
A "tradition", or some may say a practice maintained over generations the world over, is stewarding the land, the ʻāina. Caring for it as it cares for us. ʻĀina is more than simply "the land". It is that which sustains us.
In Andrews Dictionary of 1865:
AI-NA
s. Ai, to eat, enjoy, and na, contraction of ana (the participial termination of words equivalent to Eng. ing. See Gram. § 204,2.) An eating; the means of eating, i. e., the fruits of the land; hence,
1. Land generally; a farm; a field; a country; an island. In this sense it is SYN. with moku, or mokupuni; elua inoa i kapaia ma ka mokupuni, he moku kekahi, a he aina kekahi, an island has two names, moku is one, and aina is the other. D. Malo. 7:1.
2. Any taxable privilege, as the right of fishing, the right to sell things in market, &c.
3. Any means of obtaining a living; e kii au e hao i kela waiwai, no ka mea, o ko'u aina no o ka hao wale aku, I will go and rob that property, because it is my means of living to rob. Haw. Hist.
And in the Pukui and Elbert dictionary:
ʻāina
n. Land, earth. Cf. ʻai, to eat; ʻaina, kamaʻāina. Kō nā ʻāina like ʻole, belonging to foreign lands, foreign, international. ʻĀina hoʻoilina, inherited property or estate. Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono (motto of Hawaiʻi), the life of the land is preserved in righteousness. (PEP kaainga.)
In conversations with those more learned about these things than I, itʻs been shared that "land, earth"...is, if one thoughtfully reads Andrews, "that which sustains us", or as he says, "the means of eating". Itʻs not simply the "land", it is livelihood, and something many of us revere and have deep aloha for, because it provides. For a mahiʻai, a cultivator or farmer, the land is ʻāina; for fisherfolk, the ocean is ʻāina; for a kahuna kālai waʻa, a person skilled in canoe carving, a koa tree is ʻāina. And even, if one is a robber as in Andrews 3. above, the robbing is ʻāina.
And, I suppose, following this line of thinking, a kumu niu, a coconut tree, is ʻāina. Its multitude of uses makes life and livelihood possible for many. Timber for building, strong and durable cordage, food, fuel, thatch, brooms, cups, baskets, sieves, oil, liquor, drums, water, milk, its uses are many and critically important.
Along Waiolama in Hilo, below taken from outside Kūhiō Grille, the tall one distant center.
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| US Fish and Wildlife Service |
The stories of niu on Samarang are fascinating. GoGoogle...
And yes, Pelehonuamea continues to create...The photo below was at the last full moon mid-Octoberish, by Dan OʻConnor. Wow.
So. The decline in output is slow, but still a decline. For now.
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