Description
“Malama the Aina” is a Hawaiian phrase that means “to care for and honor the land.” It is a central value in Hawaiian culture and is a principle I am guided by. Respecting the land where we live means we take care of it. I understand that we are the current guardians and that by teaching our keiki (children) how to honor the ocean and the land we are also teaching them how to honor themselves because we are all connected. It is good to remember how reliant we are to where we live, both physically for physical sustenance and health, and also for our mental and emotional and spiritual health. By remembering and honoring the land and the ocean we can heal the place as well as ourselves. I’ve made several friends by volunteering at beach clean-ups, weeding at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens, and helping to plant native plants in an effort to restore the forest through the Awahi Forest Restoration Project. It’s powerful, the relationships we create here, the friends that we make when we volunteer. We start by bending down to pull weeds, and the next thing you know, we’re feeding each other and spending time with each other, loving each other. That’s one of the outcomes. It’s a beautiful space when we collaborate.
In this piece I have written in shorthand the word “relationship” because it is through our relationships to the land and each other that determines the quality of the life we live and what we want to pass down to the next generations.