The Legend of Naupaka

There are a lot of legends involving the beach and mountain naupaka. This one comes closest to the version I was told during a botany class I took at the University of Hawaii many decades ago. This is from the Waikoloa website.

The Story of the Naupaka

There are two varieties of the Naupaka, one growing near the sea called Naupaka Kahakai, the other in the mountain is called Naupaka Kauihiwa. Each bears what appears to be half of a blossom and when placed together, they form a perfect flower.

There are several Hawaiian legends about these curious blossoms.  One story tells of two lovers, forever separated by the vengeful wrath of the Volcano Goddess Pele (pronounced peh-le).

Pele’s home is believed to be Halema`uma`u Crate at the summit of Kilauea on Hawai`i Island.  Pele had a very beautiful and loving sister named Princess Naupaka who she was jealous of because the people loved her.

One day Princess Naupaka was walking on the beach and noticed a very handsome young man standing in the water.  When their eyes met, he smiled and told her his name was Kaui and she fell instantly in love with him.  Naupaka went to her sister Pele to ask permission to marry Kaui. Pele told her sister she would go down to the beach the next day to meet this young man and would make her decision then.

The next day when Pele saw Kaui, she found him very pleasing and decided she wanted him for herself.  Pele told Kaui he had to come live with her.  Kaui replied, “I cannot for I met your sister, Princess Naupaka, the day before and I love her.”  Enraged, Pele chased the couple up to the mountain, hurling fiery lava after them.  

Princess Naupaka, took a blossom from her hair, ripped it in two and gave Kaui half. Pele’s other gentler sisters, took pity on the young man and transformed him into the Mountain Naupaka, the same blossom Princess Naupaka was wearing in her hair.  Pele then turned her vengeance on her sister, chasing her down to the ocean. Once again her sisters intervened and transformed the princess into Beach Naupaka.

Both Naupaka plants exist today; one on the shore and the other up on the mountains, each blooming as half flowers.  It is said that the lovers can be reunited when the flower of the Naupaka Kuaihiwi and the Naupaka Kahakai are joined together after they have been picked.

https://www.waikoloabeachgolf.com/the-story-of-the-naupaka/

I've often wondered if the beach and mountain naupakas were very different from each other.

When we were on the Big Island with Keola and family in July, I happened to see some naupaka along the beach and  took a photo of it so I could compare it with what grows on our neighborhood on the mountain.

I don't know... Maybe the beach naupaka has more rounded petals? I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for another naupaka next time we're at the beach.

Do Not Stand By My Grave and Weep

I wrote before how I was captivated by this Japanese boy singing a song that Josh Groban made famous, You Raise Me Up.

So anyway, I decided to look up more of his YouTube videos and was listening to this one called, Sen No Kaze ni Natte. Kawai Yuto is the young Japanese boy and he's singing at a Korean TV show. It looks something like America's Got Talent. So the judges are speaking in Korean but Yuto is singing in Japanese.

As I listened to the words, it suddenly struck me that the lyrics are awfully, awfully familiar. My Japanese is VERY faulty. Mom tells me not to speak Japanese if I'm in Japan. However, I recognized the first words as sounding like Do not cry at my grave.  And then I'm hearing words like snow, then a star in the sky to watch over you, a bird, and wind in the sky...

It reminded me of the poem I'd heard a long time ago. I thought it was from the Civil War. My brain must be mixed up. Anyway, Just to prove you can find anything on the web, I looked online for the possible translation from Japanese to English.

Well... looking further I discovered it was not written during the Civil War. AI said it was attributed to Mary Elizabeth Frye (1905–2004). This is not true either.

When I looked it up on Wikipedia it said that Frye claimed she'd written it and said it was confirmed by Dear Abby. However, 

"Pauline Phillips and her daughter Jeanne Phillips, writing as Abigail van Buren, repeatedly confessed to their readers that they could not confirm who had written the popular poem."

This is also from Wikipedia:

Kansas native Clare Harner (1909–1977) first published "Immortality" in the December 1934 issue of poetry magazine The Gypsy and was reprinted in their February 1935 issue:

Clare Harner wrote it after the sad, sudden death of her brother.

When I looked further on YouTube, it turned out singer, Akikawa, Masafumi had written the Japanese version of the poem and made it into this beautiful song, "Sen no Kaze in Natte" which Yuto sang later.

All this just proves you can find out anything on the web, BUT you can't rely on just AI. You have to dig further on your own. 

And to close, here are the original words to Clare Harner's beautiful poem:

 Do not stand

          By my grave, and weep.

     I am not there,

   I do not sleep—

I am the thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glints in snow

I am the sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle, autumn rain.

As you awake with morning's hush,

I am the swift, up-flinging rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight,

I am the day transcending night.

  Do not stand

        By my grave, and cry—

      I am not there,

    I did not die.

— Clare Harner, The Gypsy, December 1934

POSTSCRIPT:

I did more digging. I still had that Civil War thing on my mind so I looked up Ken Burns' Civil War series which is where I thought I'd heard this poem. 

OK, it wasn't this poem by Clare Harner, but part of a letter written by Sullivan Ballou to his wife, Sarah that was read during the Ken Burns series. The letter was never mailed because he was killed the week after at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 21, 1861. It was found later after Sarah had already passed away.

"But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights … always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again …"

Here's a link to read more about it.  https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-civil-war/sullivan-ballou-letter

Stuck Fitbit Charge 6

I bought a Fitbit Charge 2 many years ago and used it especially to record my sleep. I used an Apple watch in the daytime. But since I've lost way too much weight lately after installing Invisalign to get my teeth back where it should after my front tooth snapped off, my wrist got too thin to hold a big Apple Watch. I therefore handed down my Apple Watch to my granddaughter who is happily using it at college.

I'm now using my Fitbit Charge 2 for the whole day. It obviously doesn't do what the Apple Watch could, but I don't care.

When I first got that Charge 2, the color of the font was weird so they sent me a second one. 

Art's Charge 2 died so he got a Charge 6 a little over a year ago.

But then his Charge 6 suddenly developed another problem. Notice the difference between the Charge 2 and Charge 6.

For a sleeker look, I suppose, Fitbit installed a shorter button.

Well his button is stuck inside the watch. It won't retract.

He's tried alcohol and then WD40 and I don't know what else to loosen it.

You can see from this photo that I tried to pry it out with a needle, but no luck. It's stuck! He's looked online and nothing helps.

The warranty is 2 months over so the Fitbit is dead.

He's now using my extra Charge 2 (to chart his sleep) and I don't think I'll ever replace it with a 6 no matter how good the reviews might be. 😏

Raising Our Spirits

Every so often, there will be a song or performer that I'll come across that really grabs my attention and won't let go.

Many years ago, I was captivated by Josh Groban's music. There was one particular song that just resonated with me. 

It was "You Raise Me Up" which was originally composed by Norwegian, Rolf Løvland with lyrics by Irish song writer, Brendan Graham. It was first recorded by the Norwegian-Irish band Secret Garden, in collaboration with Irish singer Brian Kennedy. 

I loved hearing the 5th graders sing that song at their graduation ceremony from our Illinois elementary school where I taught.

Anyway, one day I was searching for something and this YouTube video popped up. It's a Korean video with a Japanese boy singing "You Raise Me Up." The actual original lyrics have been changed quite a bit from what little translation I can pick up. The young boy's name is listed as Kawai Yuto. I know kawaii means cute. I don't know if Kawai is just a mispelling. His name must be Yuto. I think.

And here is Josh Groban.

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody.

A Really Awesome and Really Awful Time

This past Saturday was such a momentous day. 

My Kauai cousins sent me a photo of their participation in the No King's Day protest. I consider it a celebration of our freedom to protest what we see as a danger to our democracy.

They sent me this fun photo. My cousin is on the right.

I texted back that I wish I could have been there with them.

But that same evening, we had a birthday party for mom to celebrate her 96th birthday. My cousin, Arnold made a special trip to our house bringing with him a huge platter of exquisite sushi that was almost gone by the end of the party. He had to leave early to avoid being with too many people before a trip he was taking.

The sweetest, most wonderful gift was the time he spent with mom talking and listening to her. Auntie Grace was Arnold's mom and the sister mom was closest to because they were closest in age. And Auntie Grace was such a vibrant person. Arnold knows quite a bit of Japanese so he could communicate with her easily. Since the party was late starting and mom eats normally at 5:00, we had to give her meal earlier while Arnold kept her company.

After Arnold left my nephew, Shawn sat next to mom. She was overjoyed that he could be at her birthday party since he has a busy schedule performing around the island.

It was a joyous night. You would not know that three little kids could run amok around the house and create such a loud cacophony of happy celebration and activity.

Unfortunately, at the end of the party when family were leaving, I began to feel that terrible omen that I could be having a vertigo attack. 

Art rushed upstairs to get me a meclizine pill.

But it didn't work.

A half hour later, nausea hit. I tried the Epley Maneuver but it seemed to make it worse. I couldn't walk. I couldn't move.

Art rushed downstairs and got mom's walker with the seat. 

He got a bowl to hold in front of me, helped me onto the walker seat and wheeled me to the bathroom. Everything, and I mean everything I ate in the day came out of me from both ends. It was a nightmare.

After a couple of hours when nothing else was left in me, Art wheeled me back to my office/bedroom and had me lie down on the twin bed I have there. He slept on the other twin bed to watch over me. I couldn't take a shower and slept in the clothes I wore all day.

He and my brother think the vertigo might have been triggered by all the noise, activity and stress of putting the party together and making sure everybody got what they wanted. And yet, they are family and they all pitched in to clean up and organize left overs. 

I don't know what caused it. I've written my doctor and listed all my episodes just so he has a record. I'd kept notes since 2021 of each attack hoping to figure out what was going on.

So it was truly a day of ups and downs. 

POSTSCRIPT:

Remember my doing Photoshop in my last blog post? I learned how to do it from my brother who is the Photoshop magician. One family member wasn't able to join us until after our group photo was taken. My brother therefore took a photo of that late comer when he arrived and magically added him to the group photo. I wonder if you can tell which person it was. 😄

Altering Reality? Sort of...

I've been working on a photobook for our grandsons with pictures of their stay in Hawaii, their travels to get here and then to their new home in another country. They had fun adding speech bubbles to a lot of their photos while they were here in Hawaii.

I'm almost done. My brother is the artistic genius who is going to create the cover for me.

My problem was how to end the book. Keola and Sarah have been so busy getting the boys settled in their new home in a new country that there haven't been many photos forthcoming.

Anyway, this photo was posted of Keola and JK walking into a forest and I thought it begged the last words..."And on they go to another adventure."

Buuut....sigh...

Then I'm thinking...

RK isn't in the photo and the book is about both of them.

Sigh....

Keola hates when I alter photos because he feels I'm digitally altering reality. 

Buuut...

It's not really altering reality since they were all there together.

So....

I looked for a photo of RK's back in the last few years of photos they'd sent us.

So here it is. I cut RK out of this photo (from another country) and added him in here. No problem, right?

And then I'm thinking.... Oh no... but now Sarah isn't there. She was taking the photo. Should I erase Keola?  But then it unbalances the photo. Arrrghhh!

It was even harder to find a photo of Sarah's back because she's the one who usually takes the photos.

I had to darken Sarah's blouse and skin before adding her into the photo. But there it is! 

But oh no.... RK is the only one wearing shorts! 😯 And did I make him too short?!?  Arrrghhh! 😖

Sigh... ah well. It's just a smallish photo anyway. Sort of. Maybe they won't notice. 

POSTSCRIPT:
 

OK... I couldn't stand it.

I gave RK pants and some inches as well.

I hope Keola does not notice my tampering with reality....

...again. 😐

A Time for Us?

It all started like this.

Art went down to tell mom it was time to sleep in the evening and make sure she's taken her medication, used the bathroom, etc. If I go down, she will argue with me that she's not ready and that she's watching TV or whatever, even though she's staring blankly at Japanese baseball that she doesn't understand at all. Her dementia is worsening. However, she will listen to Art (sometimes) and meekly go to bed. (My daughter says it must be a guy thing.) If we don't make sure she's gone to bed, she could easily fall asleep sitting up on the sofa... which she has.

So anyway, one evening Art came upstairs after getting her to sleep and sighed, "Aren't we retired? When is it our time to relax and enjoy ourselves?" He has remarked that we are truly running a care home here having all our time governed with her care except when she's at day care Monday thru Fridays from 7:30 AM-3:00 PM. 

And I've been grateful for everything he's done helping to care for her since 2006 when she asked us to return to Hawaii after my father passed away.

Anyway.... I'm being diverted from what I was planning to write about.

Soooo when Art sighed, "When is it our time to relax and enjoy ourselves?" it reminded me of the song from West Side Story and I burst out singing, 

"There's a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time to spare,
Time to look, time to care,
Someday..."

He asked where that song was from so I looked it up (just to be sure) and it said Romeo and Juliet. 

What?!? I thought it was West Side Story. So I researched this further. Would you believe the song from West Side Story and Romeo and Juliet have the same melody? 

This is Barbra Streisand and Josh Groban singing A Place For Us from West Side Story.  I think it's from 1961. (I was singing the 2nd verse.) This version was created by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.

And this is Andy Williams singing A Time for us from Romeo and Juliet. Apparently the lyrics were written in 1968.

So there you have it. I think.

POSTSCRIPT 1: Art just reminded me that it's really been only since 2022 or so that we began seeing Mom's slow decline. Prior to that she was doing very well and loved to clean, read, cook and work in the garden. We joked to friends that she was taking care of us and we enjoyed taking her on trips. I guess that's what makes it so very sad to see because she was really active and cognitively super sharp until then. There are so many emotions a caregiver goes through as you feel someone leaving you a little at a time. 

POSTSCRIPT 2: The other day, I saw mom sitting on the sofa looking really weary. This was at 9:00 in the morning. I asked what was wrong and she said she was really tired and thought she was going to die. Mom is 96. She's never said anything like this before.

This freaked me out completely! I told her she should just take a nap and she might feel better. I watched her sleeping, making sure her chest was rising up and down. I texted my brother who told me that mom had told him her young life was "hell" and that being cared for by Art and me was heaven to her now in her old age. He told me I should be comforted that when the time comes that she has to leave us, we can feel we've done our best.

And that made me cry.

Well... she got up from her nap feeling much, much better. 

Huge sigh of relief. I gave her a nice dessert that night. I swear... she's going to give me a heart attack.

And yes, I do have the best brother in the whole world along with the best husband… ❤️

Just Something Funny

This is just something funny I'd kept in my computer file because it made me laugh out loud. I haven't been to any recent reunions with my high school classmates but I've been to a couple of small gatherings and I'm happy to say everybody looked almost the same. They were very easily recognizable. 

To be perfectly honest, I think I look totally different (yes, I've aged) but I'm happy to say some (a few) people have still recognized me. Or they were just being kind. 😆

So anyway I saw this in the paper a long time ago and just had to share it with you.

Hunting for Hibiscus

 It all started during one of our evening walks.

I've seen the yellow hibiscus. Apparently it is Hawaii's state flower. And true, I've seen the orange one a lot too. But I'd never seen anything like the purple, red, orange one on the right. It was just sticking out of a fence!

So then it got me wondering how many different hibiscus I might find around our town.

The white one was taken by our photographer friend, Dave, but these others were just all around our neighborhood.

I really like the double red petaled flower. The yellow and pink had those curly edges which was fun to see.

I found that double petaled yellowish orange hibiscus when we were on the Big Island.

And I have one neighbor who has several different hibiscus in their front yard. I think I've taken photos of all of them. Maybe. But I'll keep my eyes open if something different pops up.

When Did That Bromance End?

My writing blog posts has been rather spotty this year since we had those two long trips and then our son and family came to stay with us and then catching up all the things that needed catching up.

So I didn't get to show this photo that I thought was rather funny at the time. We were on the road when I noticed something hilarious about this car in front of us.

Our friend has a Tesla so I know Tesla owners are very happy to own their electric cars. 

But then Elon Musk and Trump had developed that Bromance and Elon was put in charge of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) in November, 2024. 

That's when Tesla owners were not thrilled. There were even protests at Tesla dealerships. Some Tesla cars were being damaged.

I took this photo in March of this year when I noticed that there was something missing from the back of that car. I could swear it was supposed to proudly have that T in the back. Sooo... I looked it up just in case.

Yup. There it is. The owner of that Tesla must have removed the T. I can't imagine it just falling off.

Anyway.... The bromance ended in May of this year and Musk no longer loves Trump. So if you'd like to have a Tesla, it's safe again.

POSTSCRIPT:

I saw in the news that it looked like they made up at the Charlie Kirk memorial. I have a feeling it’s because Trump could hurt Musk’s business empire.